Freedom House tags Malta as ‘free’ in democracy report

Freedom House, an independent organisation dedicated to the expansion of freedom and democracy around the world, tagged Malta as a “free” country in its latest report entitled Freedom in the World 2019, published at the beginning of February.

Malta scored 91 out of 100 on Freedom House’s Aggregate Freedom Score, on which spectrum zero means the least free and 100 denotes the most unrestricted. Malta scored 1.5 out of seven in the report’s Freedom Rating, scored two out of seven in terms of Political Rights and one out of seven in terms of Civil Liberties, all on respective scales where one means the freest and seven means the least free.

No further explanation or analysis has been provided in the report about the country as of the date of the publication. However, the website states that the full report for Malta or its territory will be published online as soon as it becomes available.

The report has been published annually since 2005, the current one being the 13th publication to date. Freedom House alerts that freedom in the world has recorded declines political rights and civil liberties globally since the launch of the report.

The report singles out Hungary’s status declining from Free to Partly Free, Serbia’s status declining from Free to Partly Free, Nicaragua’s state declining from Partly Free to Not Free, Uganda’s condition declining from Partly Free to Not Free and Zimbabwe’s status improving from Not Free to Partly Free. Freedom House’s website offers further information about the conclusions of the report.

“We analyse the challenges to freedom, advocate for greater political rights and civil liberties, and support frontline activists to defend human rights and promote democratic change. Founded in 1941, Freedom House was the first American organisation to champion the advancement of freedom globally,” Freedom House says on its website about their activities and mission.

The most recent report was supported by the Achelis & Bodman Foundation, the Jyllands-Posten Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the William & Sheila Konar Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and the Fritt Ord Foundation. Freedom House takes sole responsibility for the report’s content. The full report is available for download here.