Freedom House called regime in Belarus authoritarian

Freedom House’s report listed Belarus among authoritarian states.

The survey studies the human rights situation and democracy in 29 states of Eastern Europe and former Soviet bloc, AFN reports.

The report estimates electoral process, civil society, independent media, local democratic governance, national democratic governance, judicial framework and independence, and corruption according to a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 representing the highest level.

The Belarusian electoral process, national governance, local governance, and judicial framework have a low score of 6.75. Independence of the media was rated 6.50. The categories of corruption and civil society received best scores of 5 points.

Belarus, with a democracy score of 6.50, is described as a country with consolidated authoritarian regime (with a democracy score of 6-7) in the same list with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Hungary were referred to a group of consolidated democracy (with a democracy score of 1-3)