In Freedom House report, Turkey is also a ‘not free country’ this year
The Washington-based think tank Freedom House today released its annual report on political rights and civil liberties around the world.
According to the news reported by Voice of America, in the 2023 report titled “50th Anniversary of the Struggle for Democracy”, Turkey was once again included in the “Not Free Country” category. The report, which referred to the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, included the interpretation that this event has long overshadowed political rights and civil liberties in the country.
“President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP used the incident to justify removing key democratic checks and balances and purging political rivals,” the report says. In Freedom House’s annual report, Turkey, whose status was downgraded from “Partially Free Country” to “Not Free Country” for the first time in 2018, was again classified as “Not Free Country” as it has been since that year.
TURKEY IS ON THE LIST OF ‘COUNTRIES TO BE EXAMINED’
Noting that Turkey is preparing for major elections in the first half of this year, the report noted that with changes made to the election law last year, the government will control the determination of judges who will assess objections to the results. of the elections. In addition, the report assessed that with the disinformation law that came into effect last year, opposition campaigns and independent media could come under further pressure.
Due to these developments in 2022, Turkey was included in the list of countries that should be examined in 2023, at the end of the report.
The front page of the report featured Iranian women protesting the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in Izmir.
‘Freedoms in the world are in decline’
According to the report’s methodology, which assesses freedoms in 195 countries and 15 regions throughout 2022, each country scores between 0 and 4 out of 25 indicators. While 40 percent of the 100-point indicators refer to political rights, 60 percent fall under the category of civil liberties. Based on the total score, countries are classified into the categories of “free”, “partly free” and “not free” countries.
According to the report’s key findings, freedoms around the world have been in decline for the past 17 years. In the report, 84 of 195 countries are in the “Free” category, 54 countries are in the “Partly Free” category, and 57 countries are in the “Not Free” category.
Although there has been a steady decline in democracy and freedoms over the past 17 years, the report believes that this year may be a turning point in global freedoms. Although 35 of the world’s 195 countries experienced a decline last year, 34 countries made progress in democracy. According to the report, the gap has narrowed so much for the first time among countries that have shown decline and progress in the past 17 years.
After the elections in the two countries in 2022, Lesotho and Colombia moved from the “Partly Free” category to the “Free” country category.
According to the report, freedom of the press and expression have been under constant threat since 2005. Over the past 17 years, the number of countries that scored zero out of 195 countries in terms of press freedom increased from 14 to 33. On freedom of expression , this number increased from 6 to 15.