List of indices of freedom

There are several non-governmental organizations that publish and maintain assessments of the state of freedom in the world, according to their own various definitions of the term, and rank countries as being free, partly free, or unfree using various measures of freedom, including political rights, economic rights, and civil liberties.

* "Freedom in the World" published by Freedom House ranks countries by political rights and civil liberties that are derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Countries are assessed as "free", "partly free", or "unfree".
* The "Index of Economic Freedom" is an annual report published by The Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation. Countries are assessed as "free", "mostly free", "mostly unfree", and "unfree".
* "Worldwide Press Freedom Index" is published by Reporters Without Borders. Countries are assessed as having a "good situation", a "satisfactory situation", "noticeable problems", a "difficult situation", or a "very serious situation".
* The "Economic Freedom of the World Index" is a report published by the Fraser Institute. It is a numeric index and its results are not (yet) included in the table below.
* The Economist Intelligence Unit's "Index of Democracy" is an assesment of countries' democracy. Countries are rated to be either "Full Democracies", "Flawed Democracies", "Hybrid Regimes", or "Authoritarian". Full democracies, flawed democracies, and hybrid regimes are considered to be democracies , and the authoritarian nations are considered to be dictatorial. The Economist bases its ratings based on: civil liberties, conduct of elections, media freedom, participation, public opinion, functioning government, corruption, and stability. [http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/DEMOCRACY_INDEX_2007_v3.pdf]

Current assessments

Here is a table of the assessments in each index for most countries of the world. For exact rankings rather than assessments, refer to the individual index articles.

's 2008 survey [Bollen, K.A. (1992) Political Rights and Political Liberties in Nations: An Evaluation of Human Rights Measures, 1950 to 1984. In: Jabine, T.B. and Pierre Claude, R. "Human Rights and Statistics". University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812231082 ] legend|#77DD77|Free (92) legend|#FBEC5D|Partly Free (65) legend|#1100B3|Not Free (52)]

ummary

According to the rankings of the table above, the most free (the "all-blue") countries are (in alphabetical order):
* Austria
* Canada
* Denmark
* Estonia
* Finland
* Germany
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Mauritius
* Netherlands
* New Zealand
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* United Kingdom

And the least free (the "all-red") are:
* Cuba
* Iran
* Laos
* Libya
* Myanmar
* North Korea
* Turkmenistan
* Zimbabwe

ee also

* Areopagitica: A speech of Mr John Milton for the liberty of unlicensed printing to the Parliament of England
* Freedom House
* Freedom in the World
* Media transparency
* Transparency (humanities)
* Transparency (market)
* United Nations Parliamentary Assembly

References

External links

* [http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=251&year=2006 Freedom House's "Map of Free Press"]
* [http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=193&year=2005 Freedom House's "Freedom in the World"]
* [http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/ The Wall Street Journal's "Index of Economic Freedom"]
* [http://www.freetheworld.com/release.html The Fraser Institute's "Economic Freedom of the World"]
* [http://www.medienhilfe.org Internationale Medienhilfe (IMH)] - International organization for press freedom de
* [http://www.rsf.org/ Reporters Without Borders'] "Worldwide Press Freedom Index" - [http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=4116 2002] / [http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=8247 2003] / [http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=11715 2004] / [http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15331 2005] / [http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19388 2006] / [http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025 2007] / 2008