Freedom House 2018 FREEDOM Index

[Lord Halifax]

List of changes: The Gambia and Uganda (?) transitioned from Not Free to Party Free, Timor-Leste went from Partly Free to Free, and both Zimbabwe and Turkey downgraded from Partly Free to Not Free.

Bummer..

Uganda has indeed been downgraded to Not Free.

[Lord Halifax]

Odd to see Burma more free than Thailand. 

But a fair evaluation.

[Lord Halifax]

Odd to see Burma more free than Thailand. 

But a fair evaluation.

Why?

Buma has democratic elections and a relatively free press, Thailand has neither. Most of the Burmese population also enjoys most civil rights (outside rebel and Rohyinga areas). Partly free is objectively a fair description of Burma, and Thailand is clearly "not free" at the moment.

[Lord Halifax]

They seem to think abolishing term limits is a bad thing, which is dumb. If voters want to re-elect someone, how is taking that choice away more democratic?

In developing countries (incl. all of Africa) and immature democracies its usually a path to more authoritarian rule. Its necessary to prevent strongmen from playing "president forever".

[Lord Halifax]

Lol did they really single out Tibet as a separate entity? Not saying that there aren't problems are, but seriously? Why only Tibet/China? Why don't they also list, say, Rankine state as a separate entity, which is more justifiable since there's an actual genocide with actual killing going on. This merely comes off as anti-China hackery.

Though if they want to double down on said anti-China hackery, they really ought to separate Xinjiang Province as well, due to tensions between the central government and the Muslim peoples there. Right now this is just continuing the trend of more uninformed "Free Tibet" pandering.

They also separate Crimea, Kashmir(s) and Western Sahara

The difference between them is that Tibet is unambiguously a part of China (despite what certain Free Tibet activists say), whereas Crimea, Kashmir, and WS are considered disputed territories on the international stage. This is more akin to separating Catalonia or Scotland away from Spain and the UK, respectively.

At the very least they could've put a dotted line to emphasize the fact that this is an internal matter, de jure and de facto.

Tibet is occupied territory, like West Sahara, Kashmir, North Cyprus and Crimea. So its logical. You are too focused on formalities. It doesn't matter what territory x is "part of" (which comes down to legal mumbo jumbo), it is its status as conquered by force that matters.

[Lord Halifax]

Lol did they really single out Tibet as a separate entity? Not saying that there aren't problems are, but seriously? Why only Tibet/China? Why don't they also list, say, Rankine state as a separate entity, which is more justifiable since there's an actual genocide with actual killing going on. This merely comes off as anti-China hackery.

Though if they want to double down on said anti-China hackery, they really ought to separate Xinjiang Province as well, due to tensions between the central government and the Muslim peoples there. Right now this is just continuing the trend of more uninformed "Free Tibet" pandering.

They also separate Crimea, Kashmir(s) and Western Sahara

The difference between them is that Tibet is unambiguously a part of China (despite what certain Free Tibet activists say), whereas Crimea, Kashmir, and WS are considered disputed territories on the international stage. This is more akin to separating Catalonia or Scotland away from Spain and the UK, respectively.

At the very least they could've put a dotted line to emphasize the fact that this is an internal matter, de jure and de facto.

I don't really see why Freedom House should be particularly beholden to any ''international stage'' Tibet was de facto independent between 1913 and 1950 and if Freedom House wants to regard them as occupied territory or whatever good for them.

Well, FH certainly has the right to regard Tibet, Kashmir, etc. as occupied territories. And China, India, Pakistan, etc. have every right to ignore FH.

Pakistan very much agree Kashmir is an occupied territory.

But why should the view of states be relevant to FH? Its a private organization, they are under no obligation to care about what various governments think. Its simply not relevant in this context.