World Audit issued in May its regular report, featuring the analysis of pubic corruption, the state of human and political rights, freedom of speech and an overall assessment of democratic processes in 150 states exceeding one million citizens. The current paper appears to be the twelfth world audit report of the millennium.
The report itself is relatively brief, which, along with its clear structure, adds much to its understanding. The criteria for compiling statistical tables are available at the beginning of the text. The principal table comprises 150 countries, divided into four groups. The states enlisted in the first two groups are branded “indisputably free”. There are 40 such countries in the world today, an increase of four in comparison with the previous report. 37 countries comprise the third group, but the gravest concern applies to the fourth group, where there are as much as 74 countries (which nearly equals the number of countries in all the first three groups).
Separate sections are given to the best-performing countries and the countries having undergone “colour revolutions” and the so-called “fear societies”. Top positions in the spheres of the freedom of speech and corruption fighting have for several years being held by Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway. These countries are correspondingly placed first to sixth. As for Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, the indices of the first two are stunning indeed. From the time passed after the last research, both countries have gone 25 positions up and now share 74th position. Thus, Georgia and Ukraine have simultaneously entered the third group. Kyrgyzstan’s progress is less striking (+9 places). Being 121st gives ground for only cautious optimism.
The fourth group, where, alas, resides our country, needs special attention. Belarus shares with the Republic of Congo a far from honourable 141st place (out of 150 countries), at the same time there are only 6 countries in the world with worse abuse of press. Another immediate neighbour of Belarus appears to be Cuba. Moreover, Belarus is overtly mentioned in the “fear societies” section as “the last dictatorship of Europe”. In comparison to the “achievements” of our country the 114th rating of Russia (after Nepal and Afghanistan) seems to be a decent result.
Against the background, provided by Belarus and Russia, the 20th position of Estonia, which is an integral member of the first group, appears to be an unattainable ideal. Significant progress has lately been shown by Latvia and Lithuania (26th and 23rd correspondingly), with the latter breaking directly into the first group out of the third one.
