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Taiwan rights ranking stable: Freedom
House
By J. Michael Cole / Staff Reporter, with AP
US-based watchdog Freedom House was yesterday set to release its annual Freedom
in the World 2011 report, with little change in Taiwan¡¦s ranking despite some
concerns over continued government interference with the media.
Based on the organization¡¦s initial findings for last year, which were to be
made public at a conference in Washington, Taiwan scored 1 in the political
rights sphere and 2 on civil liberties, the same as the previous year.
¡§Taiwan remained one of Asia¡¦s strongest democracies,¡¨ Sarah Cook, Asia research
analyst and assistant editor at Freedom House, told the Taipei Times by e-mail
yesterday.
¡§Municipal elections held [on Nov. 27] were widely viewed as free and fair,
despite a shooting at a rally the evening before the polls,¡¨ Cook said.
She did not mention, however, the rapid mobilization by some senior Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) officials to exploit the shooting of Sean Lien (³s³Ó¤å) for
the party¡¦s benefit the following day.
On the handling of the corruption charges against former president Chen
Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó), Cook said: ¡§Procedural irregularities evident in earlier stages
of ... [the] case did not appear to repeat as the case moved up the judiciary
during the appeal¡¦s process.¡¨
In its 2010 report, which covered events in 2009, Freedom House had pointed to
¡§flaws¡¨ in the handling of Chen¡¦s case.
Taiwan¡¦s performance last year wasn¡¦t entirely positive, however, with Freedom
House noting a decline in the media sphere.
¡§The early dismissal of the leadership of the Public Television Service
following a series of disputes raised concerns over the independence of publicly
funded media,¡¨ Cook said, continuing a trend observed in last year¡¦s report,
which said that ¡§reforms and personnel changes at publicly owned media since
2008 have raised concerns about politicization.¡¨
Elsewhere, Freedom House said 25 countries had shown significant declines in
democracy last year, with little serious resistance from the democratic world.
This was the fifth consecutive year Freedom House reported a decline in
political rights and civil liberties worldwide.
¡§Our adversaries are not just engaging in widespread repression, they are doing
so with unprecedented aggressiveness and self-confidence,¡¨ said David Kramer,
executive director of the group. ¡§And the democratic community is not rising to
the challenge.¡¨
The report¡¦s survey of 194 countries and 14 territories found that China, Egypt,
Iran, Russia and Venezuela continued to increase repressive measures with little
significant resistance from democracies.
Among the examples cited were Beijing¡¦s pressuring foreign governments to
boycott the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony honoring jailed democracy advocate
Liu Xiaobo (¼B¾åªi) and Russia¡¦s ¡§blatant disregard¡¨ for judicial independence in
sentencing former oil magnate Mikhail Khordokovsky after a trial widely
considered fraudulent.
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