DUSHANBE, January 15, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Freedom in the World Report 2009 released by Freedom House ranked Tajikistan with 6 scores for political rights (PR) and 5 scores for civil liberties (CL) among Not Free countries.
1 represents the most free and 7 the least free rating. The ratings reflect an overall judgment based on survey results.
On January 12, Freedom House released the findings from the latest edition of Freedom in the World, the annual survey of global political rights and civil liberties. According to the survey’s findings, 2008 marked the third consecutive year in which global freedom suffered a decline. This setback was most pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa and the non-Baltic former Soviet Union, although it affected most other regions of the world.
Freedom retreated in much of the world in 2008, the third year of global decline as measured by Freedom House”s annual survey of political rights and civil liberties. Sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet Union saw the most reversals, while South Asia showed significant improvement.
Freedom in the World 2009 examines the state of freedom in all 193 countries and 16 strategic territories. The survey analyzes developments that occurred in 2008 and assigns each country a freedom status — either Free, Partly Free or Not Free based on a scoring of performance in key freedoms.
Although setbacks in 2008 did not represent substantial declines for most countries, setbacks were numerous and affected most regions. Overall, 34 countries registered declines in freedom and 14 registered improvements.
The number of countries judged by Freedom in the World as Free in 2008 stands at 89, representing 46 percent of the world”s countries and 46 percent of the global population. The number of Free countries declined by one from 2007.
The number of Partly Free countries is 62, or 32 percent of all countries assessed by the survey and 20 percent of the world”s total population. The number of Partly Free countries increased by two.
The report designates 42 countries as Not Free, representing 22 percent of the total number of countries and 34 percent of the world population. Nearly 60 percent of this number lives in China. The number of Not Free countries declined by one.
Of the 42 countries designated Not Free, eight received the survey”s lowest possible ranking for both political rights and civil liberties: North Korea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Libya, Sudan, Burma, Equatorial Guinea and Somalia.
Non-Baltic countries of the former Soviet Union continued their decade-long decline, now ranking below Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East on several survey indicators. Russia and Georgia, which went to war over South Ossetia, were among the region”s notable declines, as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova.
