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There are several non-governmental organizations that publish and maintain assessments of the state of freedom in the world and rank countries as being free, partly free, or unfree using various measures of freedom, including political rights, economic rights, and civil liberties. Image File history File links Gnome_globe_current_event. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

• 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. [1]

Freedom House is a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. and with field offices in about a dozen countries. ... Civil liberties is the name given to freedoms that protect the individual from government. ... The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (abbreviated UDHR) is an advisory declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/217, 10 December 1948 at Palais de Chaillot, Paris). ... Map of Economic Freedom released by the Heritage Foundation. ... The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is an international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company in New York City, New York, USA, with Asian and European editions, and a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million as of 2006, with 931,000 paying online subscribers. ... The Heritage Foundation is a public policy research institute based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. ... Reporters Without Borders, or RWB (French: Reporters sans frontières, Spanish: Reporteros Sin Fronteras, or RSF) is a French origin international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press, founded by its current general-secretary, Robert Menard. ... // Economic Freedom of the World Index Economic Freedom of the World Index is published by the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank. ... The Fraser Institute is a libertarian think tank based in Canada. ... The Economist is a weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd and edited in London, UK. It has been in continuous publication since September 1843. ... Democracy index map. ...

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.

State of world freedom in 2006 according to Freedom House's 2007 survey ^[1]     Free (92)      Partly Free (65)      Not Free (52)

Map of countries by 2006 Economic Freedom of the World, published by the Fraser Institute.

The Economist's 2006 Democracy Index map: lighter colours represent more democracy

2006 press freedom rankings according to Reporters Without Borders

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 370 pixelsFull resolution (1350 × 625 pixel, file size: 20 KB, MIME type: image/png) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 370 pixelsFull resolution (1350 × 625 pixel, file size: 20 KB, MIME type: image/png) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Freedom House is a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. and with field offices in about a dozen countries. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 364 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 728 pixel, file size: 121 KB, MIME type: image/png) Countries by 2006 economic freedom index. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 364 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 728 pixel, file size: 121 KB, MIME type: image/png) Countries by 2006 economic freedom index. ... The Fraser Institute is a libertarian think tank based in Canada. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1357x628, 30 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Democracy ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1357x628, 30 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Democracy ... The Economist is a weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd and edited in London, UK. It has been in continuous publication since September 1843. ... Democracy index map. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1355x651, 58 KB) The map is based on the map originally created by User:Astrokey44. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1355x651, 58 KB) The map is based on the map originally created by User:Astrokey44. ... Reporters Without Borders, or RWB (French: Reporters sans frontières, Spanish: Reporteros Sin Fronteras, or RSF) is a French origin international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press, founded by its current general-secretary, Robert Menard. ... ... For an explanation of terms related to Macedonia, see Macedonia (terminology). ... Anthem Oj, svijetla majska zoro Oh, Bright Dawn of May Montenegro() on the European continent()  —  [] Capital (and largest city) Podgorica Official languages Serbian (Ijekavian dialect)1 Demonym Montenegrin Government Republic  -  President Filip Vujanović  -  Prime Minister Željko Å turanović Independence due to the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro   -  Declared June 3, 2006... The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus(TRNC) {NOTE: the name is not accepted by UN} , in Turkish Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti, is a self-proclaimed state occupying the northern third of the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. ... This article is about the Palestinian territories as a geopolitical phenomenon. ... Not to be confused with Republika Srpska. ... For the Chinese civilization, see China. ...

Summary

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
• Republic of Ireland
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom

And the least free (the "all-red") are:

• Cuba
• Iran
• Laos
• Libya
• Myanmar
• North Korea
• Turkmenistan
• Zimbabwe

This indices don't include international organizations' organs as United Nations General Assembly. The United Nations General Assembly (GA) is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations. ...

See 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
• Transparency (humanities)
• Media transparency
• Transparency (market)
• United Nations Parliamentary Assembly

First page of the 1644 edition of Areopagitica Areopagitica: A speech of Mr John Milton for the liberty of unlicensed printing to the Parliament of England is a prose tract or polemic by John Milton, published November 23, 1644, at the height of the English Civil War. ... Freedom House is a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. and with field offices in about a dozen countries. ... Map reflecting the findings of Freedom Houses 2007 survey, concerning the state of world freedom in 2006, which is widely used by researchers and correlates highly with other measures of democracy[1]. Some of these estimates are disputed. ... In the physical sciences, specifically in optics, a transparent physical object is one that can be seen through. ... For other uses of Transparency, see Transparency (disambiguation). ... In economics, a market is transparent if much is known by many about: what products and/or services are available at what price and where. ... A United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, or United Nations Peoples Assembly (UNPA), is a proposed addition to the United Nations System that eventually would allow for direct election of UN delegates by citizens of member states. ...

External links

• Freedom House's Map of Free Press
• Freedom House's Freedom in the World
• The Wall Street Journal's Index of Economic Freedom
• The Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World
• www.medienhilfe.org Internationale Medienhilfe (IMH) - International organization for press freedom
• Reporters Without Borders' Worldwide Press Freedom Index