Belarus remains among "not free" countries in Freedom House’s report

Freedom House, a Washington-based international non-governmental organization, has ranked Belarus "not free" in its Freedom in the World Survey 2018, naviny.by said.

The survey examines the state of freedom in 195 countries and 14 territories, assigning each country and territory a status of either Free, Partly Free or Not Free, with one representing the most free and seven the least free ratings.

Apart from Belarus, other “not free” countries include Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Iran, Syria, China, Venezuela, Egypt, Cuba, Mauritania, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chad, Somali, Ethiopia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Angola, Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Among Belarus’ neighbors, Russia is described as “not free”, Ukraine as “partly free” and Poland, Lithuania and Latvia as “free”.

Of the 195 countries, 45 percent are designated as “free”, 30 percent as “partly free” and 25 percent as “not free”.

“Democracy faced its most serious crisis in decades in 2017 as its basic tenets—including guarantees of free and fair elections, the rights of minorities, freedom of the press, and the rule of law—came under attack around the world,” Freedom House says in its report.