On a less positive note, events in Ukraine in 2010 caused it to fall from Free to Partly Free. Viktor Yanukovych, whose fraudulent electoral victory in 2004 had been overturned by the Orange Revolution, won the presidency on his second attempt in early 2010. He then oversaw a deterioration in press freedom, state efforts to curb student activism, intimidation of NGOs, local elections that were almost universally derided as neither free nor fair, and indications of increased executive influence over the judiciary. Ukraine had previously been the only country in the non-Baltic former Soviet Union to earn a Free designation, and its decline represents a major setback for democracy in the region.
This is the Freedom House
description about freedom in Ukraine, emphasis mine. As I noted in a
post about Yushchenko, his greatest legacy to Ukraine was that it was freer society. Now that legacy is being undone. This should not come as a suprise to those who have followed politcal events in Ukraine during the past year. Here's an expanation by Freedom House concering the country's decline in the rankings.
Ukraine’s civil liberties rating declined from 2 to 3 and its status from Free to Partly Free due to deteriorating media freedom, secret service pressure on universities to keep students from participating in protests, government hostility toward opposition gatherings and foreign nongovernmental organizations, and an increase in presidential influence over the judiciary.
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