freedom house

In the semi-democracies of the region, as lives moved from the public to the digital sphere, many freedoms were likewise suspended, while the burden of responsibility for violations fell on citizens as government imposed restrictions that in many cases flouted normal standards of human rights.

Freedom House, an American organization dedicated to supporting and defending democracy around the world, publishes its annual report on the state of democracy and civil liberties in countries around the world for 2019.  

As in countries across the world, pro-democracy grassroots movements had little success in stopping assaults on independent institutions, the report found.

"While protest movements in every region have illustrated widespread popular demand for better governance, they have yet to reverse the overall pattern of declining freedom," Freedom House said in a statement.

But first, a reminder of Reporting Democracy's special package of stories to mark the anniversary.

And don't miss our #BerlinWall Twitter thread. From Saturday, we will be filling it with video interviews with people born in 1989 in countries formerly behind the Iron Curtain. How do they view democracy, freedom and the legacy of '89?

[THREAD]

This is the latest in a series of articles on the legacy of the fall of the Iron Curtain 30 years ago. See more.

In a period of just six months, protest-driven popular movements swept away communist regimes in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania — all of which had consistently been rated "Not Free" by Freedom House.

"The threats to Zana Cimili, as to other N1 journalists, are not only threats to the individual reporters but also to freedom of speech and of the media as fundamental democratic rights," said the channel, which has reporters in countries across the former Yugoslavia.

Viktor Orban in Hungary and Aleksandar Vucic in Serbia have had great success in snuffing out critical journalism in their countries, blazing a trail for populist forces elsewhere, the latest report of the international rights watchdog Freedom House, published on Wednesday, says.

In China 30 years ago an audacious public protest in the capital's central square pushed the country's autocrats to the brink, and when the Soviet Union imploded, the ruling party's most relentless critic became Russia's president and dominant political figure. Ascendant America had no serious rival. In Europe, West welcomed East.

He also pointed out that this solution must contribute to long-term stability in the region.

Serbia was one of the countries with the biggest declines in its democracy score, alongside Nicaragua, Tanzania and Venezuela, in this year's edition of Freedom House's annual 'Freedom in the World' report, which was published on Tuesday.