This digest has been produced in cooperation with the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
The report evaluates the state of freedom in 195 countries and 14 territories during calendar year 2017, with each unit then evaluated in a scale from 0 to 4 on 25 different indicators. These scores are used to determine two numerical ratings for political rights and civil liberties. The report aims to assess the real world rights and freedoms enjoyed by individuals, rather than governments and government performance per se. Political rights and civil liberties can be affected by both state and non-state actors, including insurgents and armed groups.
The report suggest the list of countries to be watched in 2018, as they are approaching a turning point in their democratic trajectory, and deserve special scrutiny during the year, such as Georgia, Macedonia, Uzbekistan and others.
The report also reveals that the 2015-2016 refugee crisis is still affecting the rise of xenophobic, far-right parties, which gained ground around Europe. Developments in the Balkans showed that the region still requires involvement of Western democracies, report argues.
Tags: Ethics of journalism Freedom of expression Human rights TransparencyThe content of this article can be used according to the terms of Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) . To do so use the the wording "this article was originally published on the Resource Centre on Media Freedom in Europe" including a direct active link to the original article page.
