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World
freedom in decline: watchdog
AP , WASHINGTON
Wednesday, Jan 13, 2010, Page 1
The crackdown in Iran last year highlighted a continuing decline in freedom and
rights for the fourth consecutive year, the democracy watchdog group Freedom
House reported yesterday.
The Middle East remained the most repressive region in the world and Africa
sustained the most significant decline, the report said after examining
political and civil rights in 194 countries and 14 territories.
Freedom House executive director Jennifer Windsor cited attacks on front-line
democracy activists, including what she said was brutal repression on the
streets of Iran.
She also pointed to sweeping detentions in China of ˇ§Charter 08ˇ¨ advocates of
expanding freedom and an end to Communist Party dominance, and the murder of
journalists and human rights activists in Russia.
Despite repression in China, the most significant rights improvements occurred
in Asia.
The year was marked by intensified repression against human rights defenders and
civic activists in 40 countries that comprise 20 percent of the worldˇ¦s
population.
The four-year decline was the longest stretch of civil rights setbacks in the 40
years Freedom House has been publishing reports on freedom.
By contrast, 89 countries ˇX with 46 percent of the worldˇ¦s population ˇX were
designated free by the group.
Freedom House Research director Arch Puddington said the continuing decline
shows that ˇ§the most powerful authoritarian regimes have become more repressive,
more influential in the international arena and more uncompromising.ˇ¨
The report identified Iran, Russia, Venezuela and Vietnam as states that had
become more repressive, while declines in freedom occurred also in countries
that had been registering positive trends. These included Bahrain, Jordan, Kenya
and Kyrgyzstan.
Of the 47 countries ranked not free, nine and one territory received the lowest
possible rating for both political rights and civil liberties: Myanmar,
Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Tibet,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
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