Freedom in the World: 2019 Report
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Author Topic: Freedom in the World: 2019 Report  (Read 1732 times)
Lourdes
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« on: February 05, 2019, 07:40:15 PM »



https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2019/democracy-in-retreat

Some highlights:

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* Some countries with notable gains in freedom include Malaysia, Ethiopia, Armenia, and Angola. Zimbabwe is upgraded to partly free, from its"not free" score last year.

* Hungary is now officially "partly free", the first EU country with this distinction. Serbia is also downgraded to partly free status, after being in the free column last year.

* Nicaragua and Uganda fall from partly free to "not free", and the usual suspects of the likes of China, Venezuela, Russia and Turkey also retained already abysmal scores.
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dead0man
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« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2019, 12:35:10 AM »

sh**t countries continue to be sh**t
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« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2019, 03:43:28 AM »
« Edited: February 06, 2019, 08:17:03 AM by Great Again: The Caveman Presidency »

* Hungary is now officially "partly free", the first EU country with this distinction.

The first one ever if I'm not mistaken. That certainly took a while, but it's a pretty big development. Tunisia and Senegal have now a better Freedom House rating then Hungary.
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TDAS04
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« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2019, 04:54:51 AM »

Mongolia continues to be an oasis of democracy.
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« Reply #4 on: February 06, 2019, 08:27:06 AM »

The G20 members ranked by their "aggregate score" (0 to 100):


"Free" countries

1. Canada (99)
2. Australia (98)
3. Japan (96)
4. Germany (94)
5. United Kingdom (93)
6. France (90)
7. Italy (89)
8. United States (86)
9. Argentina (84)
10. South Korea (83)
11. South Africa (79)
12. Brazil (75)
13. India (75)

"Partly Free" countries
14. Mexico (63)
15. Indonesia (62)

"Not Free" countries
16. Turkey (31)
17. Russia (20)
18. China (11)
19. Saudi Arabia (7)


(note: Brazil has a better "Civil Liberties" score than India, while both countries share the same "Political Rights" score. Therefore I put Brazil ahead of India.)
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Santander
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« Reply #5 on: February 06, 2019, 09:24:20 PM »

Democracy declines globally for 13th consecutive year. Smiley
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CrabCake
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« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2019, 10:48:08 AM »

Bangladesh should be considered Not Free IMO.
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Bismarck
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« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2019, 11:51:53 AM »

Why is Colombia considered to be partially free?
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« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2019, 12:02:19 PM »

Why is Colombia considered to be partially free?

https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/colombia
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Tender Branson
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« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2019, 12:14:03 PM »

Why are they showing Tibet as an independent country on the map ?
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thumb21
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« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2019, 12:56:21 PM »

Interesting, thanks.

Why are they showing Tibet as an independent country on the map ?

I think because they are taking seperate measurements for Tibet as a territory. They are doing the same with Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.
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Santander
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« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2019, 12:58:36 PM »

Interesting, thanks.

Why are they showing Tibet as an independent country on the map ?

I think because they are taking seperate measurements for Tibet as a territory. They are doing the same with Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.

They should start doing it for Xinjiang.
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Omega21
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« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2019, 01:02:40 PM »

Calling Hungary "partly free" is ridiculous.
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« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2019, 02:12:51 PM »
« Edited: February 07, 2019, 02:18:07 PM by Great Again: The Caveman Presidency »

Calling Hungary "partly free" is ridiculous.


Well, as far as I understand their system, a country is automatically downgraded from "Free" to "Partly Free" as soon as the average of its "Political Rights" and "Civil Liberties" scores reaches a 3.0 out of 7, as it was the case here.

This happened because Hungary's "Civil Liberties" score was downgraded from a "2" to a "3" this year (the country's "Political Rights" had already been at "3" for the past two years now).

Reading Freedom House's country report on Hungary it seems like the downgrade in the "Civil Liberties" category specifically happened due to curtailments in the area of freedom of religion for both Christians and Muslims, as the report notes:


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So, it seems the downgrade to "Partly Free" was more like a "straw that broke the camel's back" moment. According to Freedom House's assessments, Hungary had already been edging pretty closely to the "Partly Free" status in 2016 and 2017 and this is what pushed it finally over the line.


Hungary did in fact also lose a point in the "Political Pluralism and Participation" sub-section of the "Political Rights" category this year, but apparently not enough to decrease the overall PR score from "3" to "4". The reports notes in that regard:

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« Reply #14 on: February 07, 2019, 06:49:35 PM »

The overall trend away from liberal democracy is one of the saddest trends of the 21st century
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DavidB.
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« Reply #15 on: February 07, 2019, 07:17:34 PM »

Calling Hungary "partly free" is ridiculous.
This. If Hungary were only "partly free", people wouldn't have felt as free to demonstrate against the Orbán government in large numbers. Compare that to Morocco, another country in the "partly free" category, where something like that would never be possible.

Also don't really agree with Georgia's classification as "partly free" instead of "free". I've read last year's report in detail and most of their assessment isn't necessarily wrong, but they have subsequently been really harsh in grading. Armenia only has 12 fewer points out of 100, whereas you just feel the difference in terms of freedom if you visit these two countries.

Honestly, Hungary should probably rank lower than Georgia, though I think both should rank as free.

When it comes to democratic backsliding in Europe, much more attention should be paid to Serbia.
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snowguy716
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« Reply #16 on: February 08, 2019, 09:35:22 AM »

Calling Hungary "partly free" is ridiculous.
This. If Hungary were only "partly free", people wouldn't have felt as free to demonstrate against the Orbán government in large numbers. Compare that to Morocco, another country in the "partly free" category, where something like that would never be possible.

Also don't really agree with Georgia's classification as "partly free" instead of "free". I've read last year's report in detail and most of their assessment isn't necessarily wrong, but they have subsequently been really harsh in grading. Armenia only has 12 fewer points out of 100, whereas you just feel the difference in terms of freedom if you visit these two countries.

Honestly, Hungary should probably rank lower than Georgia, though I think both should rank as free.

When it comes to democratic backsliding in Europe, much more attention should be paid to Serbia.
If you can’t practice your religion openly and safely then your country is not free. 
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DavidB.
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« Reply #17 on: February 08, 2019, 09:44:50 AM »

Calling Hungary "partly free" is ridiculous.
This. If Hungary were only "partly free", people wouldn't have felt as free to demonstrate against the Orbán government in large numbers. Compare that to Morocco, another country in the "partly free" category, where something like that would never be possible.

Also don't really agree with Georgia's classification as "partly free" instead of "free". I've read last year's report in detail and most of their assessment isn't necessarily wrong, but they have subsequently been really harsh in grading. Armenia only has 12 fewer points out of 100, whereas you just feel the difference in terms of freedom if you visit these two countries.

Honestly, Hungary should probably rank lower than Georgia, though I think both should rank as free.

When it comes to democratic backsliding in Europe, much more attention should be paid to Serbia.
If you can’t practice your religion openly and safely then your country is not free. 
Who and which country does this refer to?

Calling Hungary "partly free" is ridiculous.
This. If Hungary were only "partly free", people wouldn't have felt as free to demonstrate against the Orbán government in large numbers. Compare that to Morocco, another country in the "partly free" category, where something like that would never be possible.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-morocco-protests/tens-of-thousands-protest-in-morocco-over-jailed-rif-activists-idUSKBN1K50R0
The event in Hungary seems to have been much bigger, and generally protesting in Morocco does have more negative repercussions, which means people will be much more reluctant to do so.
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« Reply #18 on: February 08, 2019, 09:54:12 AM »

The event in Hungary seems to have been much bigger, and generally protesting in Morocco does have more negative repercussions, which means people will be much more reluctant to do so.

Well, I guess that's the reason why Hungary has a 3 out of 7 score on Civil Liberties, while Morocco has a 5 out of 7 score, which is considerably worse. The fact that two countries are both in the "Partly Free" category doesn't mean that they're identical. There's still a 1-to-7 scale.

According this year's Fredom House country report on Hungary, their "freedom of assembly" record is indeed still untainted, receiving 4 out of 4 possible points in that particular sub-category. It's just that this wasn't sufficient to keep them in the "Free" category in the overall scoring.

And while Hungary still receives the highest possible score in the "freedom of assembly" category, their assessement in this matter doesn't lack some criticism:

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The 2019 country report for Morocco isn't online yet. Last year, Morocco had only 1 out of 4 points in the "freedom of assembly" category. So Freedom of House does indeed acknowledge that the situation of the freedom of assembly is considerably worse in Morocco than it is in Hungary. It just hasn't a effect on both countries' categorizations as "Partly Free", because aside from "freedom of assembly" their country reports list 24 other sub-categories where a country also receives assessment.
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Kevin
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« Reply #19 on: February 08, 2019, 01:17:06 PM »

Why is Mexico only considered "Partially Free?"
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Santander
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« Reply #20 on: February 08, 2019, 01:19:43 PM »

Why is Mexico only considered "Partially Free?"

They don't have a wall to keep all the freedom from escaping into America.
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« Reply #21 on: February 08, 2019, 01:21:11 PM »

Why is Mexico only considered "Partially Free?"

https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/mexico
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mgop
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« Reply #22 on: February 09, 2019, 09:46:39 AM »

Why is Mexico only considered "Partially Free?"

13 yeard drug war raging there. cartels killing everything in sight, so mexico really should be in not free category.
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DavidB.
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« Reply #23 on: February 09, 2019, 10:45:53 AM »

Why is Mexico only considered "Partially Free?"
It's one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
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President Johnson
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« Reply #24 on: February 10, 2019, 12:46:23 PM »

I wonder why Macedonia is rated as just "party free". It's the only non-green country I've ever been to other than Turkey (but that was in 2002).
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