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Taiwan
¡¥free,¡¦ but civil liberties at risk: report
STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Thursday, Jan 14, 2010, Page 1
Taiwan has maintained its status as one of the world¡¦s freest countries, but its
score for civil liberties was downgraded over flaws in protection of the rights
of criminal defendants, Freedom House said in a report released on Tuesday.
While Taiwan¡¦s overall rating in the Freedom in the World 2010 report was the
same as last year, its score for political rights advanced from grade 2 to grade
1 because of an increased crackdown on corruption.
On the other hand, Taiwan¡¦s score for civil liberties slid from grade 1 to grade
2 because of flaws in the protection of the rights of defendants as evidenced in
the handling of corruption cases involving former president Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó)
and his close aides.
Arch Puddington, director of Freedom House¡¦s research department, said Taiwan
generally performed well in promoting political freedom and deserved praise as
one of ¡§democracy¡¦s stars¡¨ in East Asia.
Flaws in the handling of corruption cases of the former president led to
concerns, however, that Taiwan¡¦s rule of law ¡§may be twisted a bit,¡¨ he said.
¡§In Taiwan, increased government efforts to enforce anticorruption laws were
marred by flaws in the protection of criminal defendants¡¦ rights, and new
legislation restricting the political expression of academics,¡¨ the
Washington-based human rights watchdog body wrote in the report.
It said the decline in Taiwan¡¦s civil liberties rating was ¡§due to flaws in the
protection of criminal defendants¡¦ rights that were exposed during the
anticorruption prosecutions and a high-profile murder case, as well as a law
that infringes on academic freedom by barring staff and scholars at public
educational facilities from participating in certain political activities.¡¨
It also said that the improvement in Taiwan¡¦s score for political rights was
¡§due to enforcement of anticorruption laws that led to the prosecution of former
high-ranking officials, the annulment of several legislators¡¦ election owing to
vote-buying, and the investigation of over 200 candidates for alleged
vote-buying in local elections.¡¨
Freedom House has released a Freedom in the World report annually since 1972.
The report evaluates a country¡¦s degree of freedom based on two indicators ¡X
political rights and civil liberties ¡X with each measured on a scale of one to
seven.
Of the 194 countries surveyed in this year¡¦s report, 89 were listed as ¡§free,¡¨
58 ¡§partly free¡¨ and 47 ¡§not free.¡¨
Of 14 other disputed or trust territories, Puerto Rico received the best score
for both indicators, while Tibet got the worst score for both.
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