Freedom House’s latest report says Jordan ‘partly free’

AMMAN — Jordan’s status improved from “Not Free” to “Partly Free” in the Freedom in the World 2017 report by Freedom House.

The report, which was under the theme “Populists and Autocrats: The Dual Threat to Global Democracy”, indicated that Jordan’s political rights rating improved from 6 to 5 out of 7, “due to electoral law changes that led to somewhat fairer parliamentary elections”. 

A rating of 1 out of 7 means most free and 7 means least free.

On a scale of a 100 (0=Least Free, 100=Most Free), Jordan scored 37.

Of the 195 countries assessed, 87 (45 per cent) were rated Free, 59 (30 per cent) Partly Free, and 49 (25 per cent) Not Free.

The Middle East and North Africa region had the worst ratings in the world in 2016, followed closely by Eurasia.

“With populist and nationalist forces making significant gains in democratic states, 2016 marked the 11th consecutive year of decline in global freedom,” the report said.

“There were setbacks in political rights, civil liberties, or both, in a number of countries rated ‘Free’ by the report, including Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Tunisia, and the United States,” it added.

Freedom House said 2016 was characterised by “the erosion of democratic institutions, and left few positive trends to highlight”. 

“Of the 11 countries that received trend arrows calling special attention to developments of major significance, only one denotes improvement,” it noted.