Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 20, 2011 News
-says media freedom deteriorated since 2008
A British analysis and intelligence firm has rated Guyana as a “flawed democracy’ with a noted deterioration in media freedom in recent years.
According to the recently released Economist Intelligence Unit’s Index of Democracy 2011–“Democracy under stress”, Guyana has been rated 77 out of a list of 165 countries and two states.
North Korea, whose leader Kim Jong Il died over the weekend, is the least democratic nation on Earth.
The top 10 spots in this year’s index were occupied mostly by European countries. Following Norway, which topped the list, were Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Finland and the Netherlands.
According to the report, a noticeable decline in media freedoms in recent years, affecting all regions to some extent, has accelerated since 2008. “This has affected mainly electronic media, which is often under state control or heavy state influence—although repression and infringements of the freedom of expression have also extended to the print media and, most recently, the Internet.”
Some 40 countries were named in this part, among them Guyana, France, Italy and Turkey. Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Cameroon and Rwanda were also included.
The report explained that the reasons for decline are complex and varied. “Underlying negative trends were exacerbated by the 2008-09 global economic crisis. Many governments have felt increasingly vulnerable and threatened and have reacted by intensifying their efforts to control the media and impede free expression.
Increasing unemployment and job insecurity have fostered a climate of fear and self-censorship among journalists in many countries.”
In authoritarian regimes, which have often become stronger and more confident, state control and repression of any independent media is a given and has if anything tended to get worse, with increasing attacks on independent journalists, the report said.
The report was the fourth edition of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy index. It reflects the situation as of the beginning of December 2011.
The first edition, published in The Economist’s The World in 2007, measured the state of democracy in September 2006; the second edition covered the situation towards the end of 2008; and the third as of November 2010.
The index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide for 165 independent states and two territories—this covers almost the entire population of the world and the vast majority of the world’s independent states (micro states are excluded).
The overall democracy index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Countries are placed within one of four types of regimes: full democracies; flawed democracies; hybrid regimes; and authoritarian regimes.
According to the report, Canada ranks at number eight; UK at 18, followed closely by the US at 19.
India was at 39 while Trinidad and Tobago ranked at 43 and Suriname at 54.
The report said that almost one-half of the world’s countries can be considered to be democracies. In the index, the number of “full democracies” is low, at only 25 countries; 53 countries are rated as “flawed democracies”. Of the remaining 89 countries, 52 are authoritarian and 37 are considered to be “hybrid regimes”.
“Almost one-half of the world’s population lives in a democracy of some sort, although only 11 per cent reside in full democracies. Some 2.6bn people, more than one-third of the world’s population, still lives under authoritarian rule (with a large share being, of course, in China).”
The report described 2011 as an exceptionally turbulent year politically, characterised by sovereign debt crises and weak political leadership in the developed world, dramatic change and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and rising social unrest throughout much of the world.
The report found that the US democracy has been adversely affected by a deepening of the polarisation of the political scene and political brinkmanship and paralysis.
“The US and the UK remain at the bottom end of the full democracy category. There has been a rise in protest movement. Problems in the functioning of government are more prominent.”
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