FREEDOM HOUSE and the democratic gap
By: Maurizio Donini
Tags: Journalism, David Kaye, United Nations, Freedom House, Democratic Leadership

FREEDOM HOUSE and the democratic gap

Freedom House (FH) is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States, and is the most authoritative in the field of research and study in the field of political freedoms and human rights and the dissemination of information regarding their effective respect. The latest published report, that is 2019, reaffirms the worrying decline in the level of democracy in the world. The categorization provides three distinct situations, classifications used by FH: Free, Partly free, Not free (free, partially free, not free). Countries are classified on the basis of 25 indicators, each with a score from 0 to 4, which thus make up the final aggregate score.

As anticipated, the situation is not rosy, the title assigned to the 2019 report by Freedom House is Democracy in Retreat. It is shown how the progress of democratization has not only stopped, but has begun to regress; from 1988 to 2005 the percentage of countries labeled as “not free” by FH dropped by 14 percentage points (from 37 to 23 percent) and at the same time the “free” countries jumped from 36% to 46%. But since 2006 the trend has reversed and has become accentuated in recent years, not indifferent to all this the rise to POTUS of Donald Trump, “The Orange Agent” as Spike Lee defines him, who refuses to even mention his name, has not brought the USA among the undemocratic countries, but it caused some factors to drop.

Other reasons are the rise of states such as China and India to the level of major world players, not exactly champions of democracy; just as on a global level the crisis of 2008 saw the progressive erosion of the middle class, which has always been the driving force in this field. The result is that today only 44% of the world is classified as FREE. The report highlights how in Italy, Sweden, Brazil, the United States, and partly Australia, the rise of racist and sovereign right-wing movements, which disregard parliamentary democracy in favor of popular consensus tout-court, has lowered the percentage of democracy . In particular, the director of FH targets The Donald, “President Trump exerts an influence on American politics that tests our fundamental values ​​and the stability of our constitutional system, through the demonization of the press, the contempt for the system of rule of law “.

The situation has worsened sharply in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria, Mali and Burkina Fasu, where governments are practically without authority. The Latin America of El Salvador is clearly in decline, and above all the Brazil of the controversial Jair Bolsonaro; the Far East and the European states of Hungary and Serbia.

The Italian situation, in decline, sees lights and shadows, if the democratic parliamentary process is considered a guarantee, the arrows of FH focus on the possibility of closing websites without judicial validation. The evaluation of the justice situation is very negative, with a length of proceedings that does not guarantee the law. The situation in the management of telephone services is serious, in the spring of 2018, the Italian Antitrust Authority fined TIM 4.8 million euros (5.6 million dollars) for misleading advertising regarding its broadband service in disadvantaged areas . According to the authority, TIM has omitted relevant information about its plans and their limitations. Also in February 2018, the police and the authorities of the Italian antitrust agency searched the offices of Telecom Italia, Vodafone, Fastweb, Wind Tre and the industrial lobbying company Asstel, as part of an investigation into the prices of fixed and furniture. Regulators suspect that companies had overloaded their customers by billing them for their services every four weeks rather than once a month.

Even the news media are not exempt from forms of censorship, in March 2018, the magazine Famiglia Cristiana canceled an article on the seizure of a Spanish ship carrying refugees by the Italian Navy, possibly in violation of international asylum law . After 24 hours, a modified version of the article was posted online and the original author withdrew the name. The mention of the Italian Navy has been removed from the title and the mentions of its involvement have been changed. Earlier, in January 2018, then Interior Minister Marco Minniti announced a new initiative by the Postal Police to combat the spread of fake news. The project, called “Red Button”, gave citizens the opportunity to report “fake news” using a portal on the police website. The National Crime Information Center for Critical Infrastructure Protection (CNAIPIC) has been tasked with analyzing the reported content. The police then published factual checks based on these analyzes. David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, expressed concern over the initiative, citing his vague definition of fake news. In a formal communication, he urged the government to reconsider it. The government subsequently confirmed that the initiative ended within days of Italy’s vote on March 4, 2018. It is unclear how many reports the police have received, how many cases of alleged false news have been assessed and whether any content. Defamatory lawsuits against journalists, including those operating online, are a common occurrence. The financial burden of lengthy legal proceedings can have chilling effects on journalists and their editors. Ossigeno per l’Informazione, an organization that tracks threats to journalists in Italy, has reported 562 “unjustified defamation actions” against the media since 2011, including cases against online media.