Freedom House Includes Romania Among Free Countries - Report

Freedom House includes Romania in the category of countries where political rights and civil liberties are observed, rating it at 2 on a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is the highest degree of freedom and liberties observed and 7 is the lowest.

 

The organization said countries in the former Soviet bloc continued the path of decline they started on ten years ago, and were taken over by sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, by a series of indicators. Russia and Georgia, which were at war over South Ossetia, saw one of the most notable declines in the region, alongside Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kirgizstan and the Republic of Moldova.

 

Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe remains strong, despite results registered in Bulgaria and Macedonia. In Bulgaria, the observance of political rights is ranked at 2, because of the government’s inefficiency in fighting corruption and organized crime, which prompted the European Union to suspend funds for the country in July.

 

The Republic of Moldova scored a 4 (from 3 the previous year) because of signs of political influence in the assignment of the country’s budget, new restrictions on access to information and seeming political tone of anticorruption investigations.

 

Countries in Western Europe and North America are seen as having the largest degree of freedom. The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States was a historical turning point, the report noted.

 

Italy and Greece were the two European countries that saw a decline in 2008 and the report also voices concerns regarding potential threats to freedom of expression in Canada and Great Britain.

 

The Freedom House report offers an annual assessment of progress and decline registered in 193 countries and 15 territories that are dependent of disputed. Freedom House is an independent non-government organization that supports the development of freedom in the world and monitors the observance of civil liberties since 1972.