Freedom House sees freedom ebbing around globe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Political freedom is retreating in large parts of the world including Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Venezuela, and China, the independent Freedom House human rights organization reported on Wednesday.

There were reversals in political rights and civil liberties in one-fifth of the world's countries in 2007, including some politically crucial states like Russia and Pakistan, Freedom House said in its annual global survey.

"This year's results show a profoundly disturbing deterioration of freedom worldwide," said Arch Puddington, director of research at the U.S.-based Freedom House, a non-governmental democracy watchdog dating back three decades.

The number of countries that Freedom House labeled as "free" in 2007 stood at 90, representing 46 percent of the global population, the report said.

While this number did not change from the previous year, large numbers of countries that were already designated "partly free" or "not free" saw serious regression away from democracy in 2007, the survey said.

Thirty-eight countries showed evidence of declines in freedoms, many of them in South Asia, the Middle East and from the former Soviet Union. Just 10 countries, including Thailand and Togo, showed positive shifts, it said.

Backsliding was especially notable in market-oriented autocracies and energy-rich dictatorships, including Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and China. Such countries have engaged in a "pushback" against democracy, the report said.

"Most visibly in Russia and China, but also in other parts of the world, governments are trying to harness the power of the market place while maintaining closed political systems," it said.

Russian elections last year were "an illusory spectacle," Freedom House declared. The government of Russian President Vladimir Putin also has a bad influence on neighboring countries that were former Soviet republics.

Russia pressured neighbors that it does not approve of, such as Estonia, and provided political, moral and material support to the authoritarians who dominate Central Asia, such as Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the report said.

Freedom House was disturbed by the "substantial reversal" of freedoms in another former Soviet republic, Georgia, where a state of emergency was imposed in November.

There was also backward movement in three important countries of the Arab Middle East: Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, as well as in the Palestinian territories.

Political manipulation of ethnic tensions and intolerance by leaders caused declines in political rights and civil liberties in several African countries such as Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Pakistan -- already considered "not free" by the survey -- got worse, with the government of President Pervez Musharraf attempting to consolidate power through suppression of democratic opposition. There was increased political violence, notably the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

China is the world's most populous country labeled "not free" by the survey. While there had been some expectations that Chinese leaders would initiate reforms ahead of the 2008 summer Olympics, they did not, continuing to crack down on political activists, Internet journalists, and human rights lawyers, the survey said.

"In some ways, preparations for the Olympics contributed to the country's anti-democratic environment, as the leadership forcibly moved millions of people to make way for Olympic facilities and placed new restrictions on ethnic and religious minorities," it said.

China ranks just above what Freedom House called "the worst of the worst" countries in terms of political rights and civil liberties -- Cuba, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Libya, Sudan, Myanmar (the former Burma) and Somalia.

(Editing by Alan Elsner)