The situation with freedom in Belarus, despite some reforms and certain liberalization, has not been improved over the last ten years. Human rights activists recorded even deterioration of the situation in some spheres. Such data are contained in the report, prepared by the international organization Freedom House in 2010.
In the report it is noticed that certain attempts of liberalization in 2008-2009 as a whole have not changed the status of Belarus as an authoritarian polity. However, it is said in the report, that political repression subsided compared to the period of mid-2000s.
Also, according to the human right activists, dialogue attempts between the government and civil society were undertaken, but they got nowhere. As the authors of the report said, «somewhat improved conditions for civic activism were not accompanied by radical change in relations between state and society at the local level «. As a result, in this area Belarus received rating at 6.75 (the highest rating in the Freedom House reports is 1.00, and the lowest is 7.00 — Telegraf). For comparison the rating was 6.25 in 2000.
The rating of electoral process in the country has not changed, because «insignificant improvements in nonessential areas» were made in electoral legislation», and «the government maintains the
power to manipulate the vote». So the rating is the same as ten years ago, it is 6.75.
The human right activists mentioned certain change concerning the situation with a civil society which has been improved for the last year from 6.25 to 6.00. Nevertheless, freedom level of the civil society over the last ten years remained former.
The experts of Freedom House mentioned also some improvements in the country’s media (permission to «European Radio for Belarus» to operate in Minsk and so on). As a result this year level of freedom of independent mass-media has improved in comparison with 2000 by 0.25 points from 6.75 to 6.50.
It is noticed in the report that the authorities had taken some steps to reduce political harassment of the opponents. But state intervention in investigation remains, the experts said. As a result, Belarus has received rating 6.75, which exceeded 2000th level by 0.25.
The human right activists informed also that corruption level «in key state institutions», despite some liberalization, remained extremely high. Therefore Belarus rating is 6.00 (it was 5.25 in 2000).
The experts also considered that the government would roll back the democratic reforms of the past two years on the threshold of the future presidential election.
As a whole, political freedom level in Belarus, according to the report, is close to the levels in such countries, as Chad, China, Cuba, Guinea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Syria. At the same time, the citizens of Belarus are more free, than the citizens Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, North Korea, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
