Tibet second least free place on earth: Freedom House
DHARAMSALA, Jan 29: Tibet ranks second among the worst places in the world for political rights and civil liberties, according to a report released by the US-backed NGO Freedom House.
It gave Tibet a score 7 for both political rights and civil liberties (1 being most free and 7 being least free), and an overall ‘Not free’ rating.
Only Syria received a lower score than Tibet on the rights group’s annual survey of freedom in the world.
In its report ‘Anxious Dictators, Wavering Democracies: Global Freedom under Pressure’, Freedom House called China “a role model, in the developing world and beyond, for combining political repression and economic growth, at the cost of human rights.”
China received a freedom rating of six and an aggregate score of 16. The aggregate score is calculated by adding scores from a total of 25 indicators. The highest aggregate score possible is 100.
The report criticized President Xi Jinping’s style of governance and held him responsible for lack of freedom in China.
“Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Xi Jinping, who assumed his post in 2012, continued to display a centralized and hands-on leadership style–as well as an intolerance for dissent–in 2015. Xi heads a growing list of coordinating bodies that give him direct supervision over policy areas including domestic security, economic reform, internet management, and ethnic relations,” the report noted.
Freedom House also said that 2015 marked the tenth year of continuous decline in freedom around the world, noting that 72 countries fell in the freedom rankings in 2015 – the most in the last decade.
