Ukraine is still not fully free, according to the 2019 Freedom in the World Index – nine years after it lost the status after the election of runaway former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Ukraine ranks as “partly free” in the 2019 index released on Feb. 4 by Freedom House, a nonprofit organization based in the United States.
The Freedom in the World Index ranks countries according to their political and civil liberties, giving them a score out of 100. Ukraine scored 60 points, losing two points compared to its score in 2018. The points were lost because of the increasing number of attacks on activists and journalists, together with increasing hostility to minorities, Freedom House said.
The attacks included that on Kateryna Handziuk, an activist from Kherson, a city 550 kilometers south of Kyiv, who was attacked with acid on July 31. She died on Nov. 4 from injuries sustained in the attack. Five people have been arrested, but those who ordered the attack remain at liberty.
Freedom House estimates that over 50 activists and human rights defenders were attacked in the first nine months of 2018. The organization said that proper investigations are only usually performed after a public outcry.
Among other negative tendencies in Ukraine, the organization cited the poor track record of candidates for the newly established anti-corruption court and the introduction of a month-long period of martial law in 10 oblasts after Russia’s attack on Ukrainian naval vessels in the Black Sea on Nov. 25. The introduction of martial law opened up room for censorship, Freedom House said.
Corruption and limits on media freedom have been ongoing problems for Ukraine. Freedom House writes that journalists continue to face the threat of violence and intimidation. The independent Institute of Mass Information registered 201 media freedom violations from January to November 2018. Of these incidents, 28 involved beatings or attacks on journalists, while 27 incidents involved threats and intimidation of members of the media.
On Jan. 31, Zurab Alasania the head of National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine, was fired, saying one of the reasons was the company’s failure to cover important events, all which were speeches by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The incident provoked an outcry from activists and journalists, while Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s interior minister, stated on the ministry’s website that the incident could be seen as an attempt to impose censorship.
“The year also featured growing pressure to limit publications in languages other than Ukrainian,” reads the report by Freedom House, saying that news agencies such as the Kyiv Post, Ukraine’s only English language newspaper, could be forced to cease publication due to a proposed law that would force the foreign-language media to produce a Ukrainian-language version of their publication.
After the inauguration of Yanukovych, in 2010, Ukraine dropped from fully free to partially free, according to Freedom House. Even with the ousting of Yanukovyhk, after the Euromaidan in 2014, the situation remains unchanged, with Ukraine still unable to restore its status as a free country.
NEW REPORT 📈: Democracy is in retreat around the world, with 2019 marking the 13th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. How free is your country? Read our annual #FreedomInTheWorld report to find out. https://t.co/muL6d4ECpM pic.twitter.com/ttKPcxpclM
— Freedom House (@freedomhouse) 5 февраля 2019 г.
Crimea
After Russia occupied the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014, the peninsula became one of the world’s least free regions. From 2015, Freedom House became issuing a freedom report specifically for Crimea, separate both from Ukraine and Russia. According to the latest index, Crimea scored just eight points out of 100.
Russian-occupied Crimea was also the only territory receiving a below zero score in the political liberties category. The organization deducted 2 points from zero as an unconventional measure, due to Russia’s attempt “to change the ethnic composition of a country or territory so as to destroy a culture or tip the political balance in favor of another group,” Freedom House said.
Freedom House said that Russia’s occupying authorities were persecuting ethnic minorities such as Crimean Tatars, forcing them to flee their homeland. Some 12,000 Crimean Tatars have been conscripted to the Russian army by force, while others have been prosecuted on sham charges.
The organization further decreased Crimea’s position in the ranking, saying that Russia was on pace to changing the ethnic composition of the occupied territory, forcing Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians to flee, fearing persecution, while promoting an influx of ethnic Russians into the occupied territory.
Russia itself remains a not free country, according to Freedom House. The situation remains stably poor, with political freedoms nonexistent and civil liberties under attack. Russia scored 20 out of 100, ranking the country as the least free country in Europe and one the worst in the world.
