WASHINGTON - The world grew less free yet again last year, marking the 19th straight year of shrinking freedoms, with several Asian countries and regions falling in the rankings or remaining quite low, according to an annual Freedom House report.
This year’s Freedom in the World report, released Wednesday and covering 2024, gave ratings for 195 countries and 13 territories based on an analysis of political and civil freedoms.
China remained at a score of 9 out of 100, North Korea stood at 3 and Myanmar, where the military took control of the government in a 2021 coup, fell a point to 7.
Tibet, a region of western China controlled by Beijing, was given a score of 0, making it one of the least-free places in the world. For decades, China has clamped down on the freedom of movement, expression and religious practices of Tibetans in an apparent attempt to assimilate them into Han Chinese culture.
Hong Kong, also controlled by China, dropped a point to reach a new low of 40 -– down from 61 in 2017 –- putting it on the precipice of falling into “not free” territory.
Thailand, with 34 points, slipped into “not free” status after its dissolution of an opposition party and denial of asylum seekers. In the previous year, it was ranked “partly free” at 36 thanks to a largely free 2023 general election.
Across the Asia-Pacific region, the most improved countries in 2024 were “free” Bhutan (up 5 points to 68) and “partly free” Bangladesh (up 5 points to 45, thanks to the reforms of the interim government that followed the August ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.)
“Not free” Vietnam improved a single point to reach 20 on the annual index.
20% of people live in ‘free’ societies
Globally, only 20% of the world’s population now live in countries ranked “free,” with the remaining 80% evenly split between those “partly free” and “not free,” the report said.
Over 170 million people live in countries last year downgraded from “partly free” to “not free,” it showed.
The freest countries and jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region were New Zealand (99), Japan (96), Australia (95) and Taiwan (94), all unchanged since last year’s report. The United States rose 1 point to 84.
Meanwhile, South Korea (81) declined two points after a year that saw the government try to declare martial law.
The overall global decline in freedom was largely driven by “deepening repression in places where people already lacked fundamental freedoms,” said Yana Gorokhovskaia, research director for strategy and design at Freedom House.
“The majority of countries that saw declines –- so 44 of 60 -– were already ‘partly free’ or ‘not free’,” Gorokhovskaia said at the report launch. “Together, ‘partly free’ and ‘not free’ countries accounted for 80% of all the aggregate points lost in the index last year.”
Edited by Malcolm Foster.