Freedom House Reports 14th Year of Decline of Liberty Globally

           Freedom has declined in the world for the 14^th consecutive year in 2019, according to the latest annual report by Freedom House: https://freedomhouse.org/, as declines outpaced gains globally. 

There was less freedom even in mature representative republics like the United States and the largest, India, where populist leaders and movements threaten liberty, the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law, and pluralism, with equal rights for minorities especially under threat, the report found.  There has been a notable decline in freedom in Eastern European States like Hungary and even Poland.  Dictators in Russia, Venezuela and Turkey have used elections to gain power and turn their states into authoritarian regimes, using rigged elections as a democratic façade.

The report notes the decline is magnified by the withdrawal of American leadership under Donald Trump for human rights, with aspiring authoritarian and autocratic leaders instead copying his models to clamp down on freedom of the press and dissent.  A trend continues of unfree States like tyrant Vladimir Putin’s Russia attempting to persecute even critics living abroad in exile, as does the practice by Communist China of restrictions on Internet freedom that it compels private suppliers to consent to, which can become a model for other despots, Freedom House reports.  Election security has become an increasing concern in free States, as Russia and other authoritarian regimes use a wider array of tools than previously available to undermine representative government in free States.

It is ever more critical to defend liberty, free and fair elections, representative government, and democratic norms, such as the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law and the truth.