Articles by Freedom House
After delivering years of strife, Erdoğan demands more power
This Sunday, Turkey will hold a referendum on changes to its constitution that would transform the country from a parliamentary to a presidential republic, concentrating power in the hands of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Erdoğan has pursued this greater responsibility despite an increasingly disastrous record of governance.
The battle for China’s spirit : Religious revival, repression, and resistance under Xi Jinping
The Chinese government’s controls over religion have intensified under Xi Jinping, seeping into new areas of daily life and triggering growing resistance from believers, according to the Freedom House report “The Battle for China’s Spirit”.
Azerbaijan: Crackdown on free expression accelerates with upheld conviction of prominent blogger
The undersigned organisations condemn in the strongest possible terms today’s sentencing of Mehman Huseynov, Azerbaijani journalist and chairman of the country’s leading freedom of expression group, Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, to two years in jail on defamation charges. He was taken into custody from the court room, without being allowed to speak in […]
Assessing the state of freedom in Ukraine is no easy task
The release of Freedom House’s annual Freedom in the World report generated considerable debate about the findings for Ukraine, and specifically about the report’s handling of Russian-occupied Crimea and the portions of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
Freedom in the World 2017: Decline continues amid rising populism and autocracy
Populist and nationalist gains in democratic states and brazen acts of aggression by authoritarian powers have affected the global climate for rights, according to Freedom in the World 2017, Freedom House’s annual report on political rights and civil liberties.
Asia round-up: Campaign for imprisoned Chinese writers, attacks on media, digital media gains and more
December: World authors campaign to release Chinese writers; relative calm in Nepal’s media; targeted killings in Philippines and Burma; recognition of digital journalists in Hong Kong.
Poland: Some hope in the midst of chaos
Poland’s citizens and civil society are not standing by idly while the government is demolishing the country’s democratic institutions.
One of world’s longest-imprisoned journalists now placed in solitary confinement
Muhammad Bekjanov – an Uzbek journalist who tried to initiate debate on taboo subjects such as the use of forced labour in the cotton harvest – has been placed in solitary confinement. The journalist has been in prison for 17 years, and the move could be a sign that the government is preparing to extend his prison term yet again.