TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan rose to sixth-freest country in the world and kept its ranking as second-freest in Asia, in Freedom House’s latest report on global freedom.
In the annual Freedom in the World report released on Tuesday, Taiwan rose one spot from last year to tie for sixth freest in the world, along with Barbados. Taiwan repeated last year's score of 94 out of 100, making it the second-freest country in Asia, trailing only Japan at 96.
In Freedom House's evaluation of Taiwan, the country again scored 38 out of 40 for political rights and 56 out of 60 for civil liberties.
Finland was ranked first, Norway, New Zealand, and Sweden tied for second, and Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and San Marino shared third. On the other end of the spectrum, China ranked as the 11th least free country with a score of 9 and a minus 2 for political rights, 11 for civil liberties, and a "not free" classification.
Taiwan scored 79 out of 100 for internet freedom, a one-point rise from last year, putting it in sixth, behind the Netherlands and ahead of Japan. Canada came in third, Estonia was second, and Iceland took the top spot with a score of 94.
Freedom House rated Taiwan's protection of civil liberties as "generally robust." However, it noted that ongoing concerns include inadequate measures to protect migrant workers from exploitation, as well as insufficient efforts to counter the Chinese government's attempts to influence policymaking, media, and democratic infrastructure.
The report mentions that global freedom declined for the 19th consecutive year in 2024. People in 60 countries faced reductions in political rights and civil liberties, while only 34 countries showed improvements.
The report notes that violence was a major theme during elections in 2024. Among the 66 countries and territories that held national elections last year, 27 were marred by violence.
The most common form of electoral violence was attacks on candidates, occurring in 20 countries. Voters in 14 countries and territories were directly subjected to violence.
The report evaluates 208 countries and territories and uses local people's access to political rights and civil liberties as the key indicators. The sources for the report include on-the-ground research, local contacts, news articles, nongovernmental organizations, and governments, among others.
