Taiwan has been listed as a “free” nation by Washington-based Freedom House in its Freedom in the World report released Jan. 13.
A free country, the report said, is defined as one where there is broad scope for open political competition, a climate of respect for civil liberties, significant independent civic life and an independent media.
Out of the 208 countries and territories surveyed in this year’s report, 45 percent were classified as “free,” 31 percent as “partially free,” and the remaining 24 percent as “not free.”
In addition to Taiwan, other free nations in the Asia-Pacific region include Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore.
To determine whether a nation is free, each one is assigned a numerical number of between 1 and 7 in two categories, political rights and civil liberties, with 1 representing most free and 7 least free.
A nation’s overall status is determined by its combined average rating from both categories. Countries with a score of 1.0 to 2.5 are rated “free,” those with a score of between 3.0 and 5.0 are “partially free,” while those with a rating above 5 are classified as “not free.”
This year Taiwan received a score of 1 in political rights and a score of 2 in civil liberties. By contrast, in the 2008 and 2009 reports Taiwan was given a score of 2 for political rights and 1 for civil liberties.
Mainland China is designated as “not free” in the survey.
Freedom House is an international nongovernmental organization based in Washington, D.C. It has been releasing Freedom in the World reports annually since 1972. (HZW)
Write to Kwangyin Liu at kwangyin.liu@mail.gio.gov.tw