 Intensified repression against human rights defenders and democratic activists, the arrest of political rivals, the censorship or closing down of newspapers and television channels, army coups and consolidated dictatorships – this is how a Freedom House report describes the general picture of political rights and civil liberties in the world which in the opinion of this organisation continued to decline for the fourth consecutive year in 2009.
Financed by the United States government and a number of charity foundations, Freedom House has published such reports every year since 1973, reports seen as genuine barometers for the progress or setback seen by political rights and civil liberties in over 200 states and territories. A marked deterioration of these freedoms was registered in 2009 in 40 countries from Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union, representing 20% of the world’s governments.
The authoritarian regimes in Iran, Russia, Venezuela and Vietnam became even more repressive, while Bahrain, Jordan, Kenya and Kyrgyzstan, once oases of relative freedom, also tightened their grip on their citizens. Against this worrying backdrop, Romania retained the same evaluation as last year, when Freedom House included it in the category of free countries, with electoral democracy, where both political rights and civil liberties are respected. On a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 represents the highest degree of freedom and 7 the lowest, Romania again scored 2. Romania’s neighbour, the ex-Soviet, majority Romanian speaking Republic of Moldova, improved its score after the long-standing discretionary regime of the pro-Russian communists was replaced by a pro-western coalition last autumn.
Included in the Partly Free category of states, just like Georgia and Armenia, the Republic of Moldova scored 3 points for political rights and 4 for civil liberties. For the most part of 2009, however, it was ruled by the communists who, in April, did not hesitate to send the police to crack down on the opposition, the media and the students who accused the government of rigging the legislative elections. Analysts say the scores given to the Republic of Moldova will improve in 2010 if the new democratic government stays in power. On the other hand, the separatist pro-Russian region of Transdniester, in the east of the Republic of Moldova, which de facto broke away with Chisinau in 1992, received 6 points from Freedom House in 2009 and its score is not likely to improve this year.
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2025-04-03
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