Freedom in the world saw a decline in 2018 for the 13th
\nconsecutive year, warns the well-known Freedom House organisation in its latest
\nreport. A research institute based in Washington, founded in 1941, financed by
\nthe US government and whose main goal is to promote liberal democracy around
\nthe world, Freedom House monitors and assesses on an annual basis the state of
\nessential liberties in 193 different countries and 15 territories across the
\nglobe. The decline in freedom has spanned all regions of the world, from long-standing
\ndemocracies like the United States to consolidated authoritarian regimes like China
\nand Russia. The Freedom House experts say the decline is not as big compared
\nwith the period at end of the 20th century prior to the collapse of
\nthe communist dictatorships in Europe and of the right-wing dictatorships in
\nLatin America, but the tendency is significant and generates risks. <\/p>\n
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The Scandinavian democracies continue to top the Freedom House
\nchart. Finland, Norway and Sweden have a maximum of 100 points, a score
\nindicating a political system with the highest degree of freedom. Although they
\ndo not have the maximum score, the list of free countries predictably includes
\ntraditional pillars of post-war democracy like the United States, Canada,
\nFrance, the UK, Germany and Italy. The list of partly free countries includes
\nSerbia and the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova
\n(with a majority Romanian-speaking population). A worrying fact is that this
\nlist also features Hungary, a country that is a member of the European Union
\nand NATO, and where Freedom House has identified one of the biggest declines in
\nfreedom under Viktor Orban’s right-wing nationalist regime. Many countries are
\nnot considered free, including essential geopolitical actors such as Russia,
\nChina and Saudi Arabia. As far as Romania is concerned, it lies in the green
\narea of the map drawn up by Freedom House, being considered a free country from
\nthe point of view of political and civic rights. <\/p>\n
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The Romanian democracy has 81 points out of 100. Commentators have
\nnoted that the American experts from Freedom House thus rank Romania better
\nthan Romanians themselves do. In the never-ending political conflict in
\nBucharest, the majority formed by the leftist Social Democratic Party and the
\nAlliance of Liberals and Democrats keep denouncing what they call the parallel
\nstate, which allegedly contains media conglomerates, special services, prosecutors
\nand judges that deliver prison sentences on order to politicians who are not to
\ntheir liking and thus ruining their careers. In response, the right-wing
\nopposition, the media and civil society accuse the government of seeking to
\nplace magistrates under political control, hindering the fight against
\ncorruption and transforming the Gendermerie into a kind of Praetorian Guard
\nemployed to stifle, only too eagerly, anti-governmental protests.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania is included in the list of free countries in the traditional Freedom House report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":80593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[39562],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-80592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-freedom-house-report"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n