NEW DELHI: An annual report prepared by Freedom House, a US-based independent watchdog, on the “health” of democracies across the world has downgraded India’s status from “free” in 2019 to “partly free” in 2020. India’s overall score dropped to 67 out of 100 in 2020, compared to 71 in 2019. In 2018, India had 75 points.
China was categorised as “not free” with a score of 9 out of 100, a further drop of two points from 2019, when it had 11 points. Pakistan scored 37, one down from 38 last year. Bangladesh remained static on 39. The USA has also dipped from 94 (2010) to 83 (2020). Sweden, Finland and Norway scored a perfect 100. This was published in the Freedom in the World 2021 report released on Wednesday.
The report said it marked the 15th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. “Nearly 75% of the world’s population lived in a country that faced deterioration last year… With India’s decline to Partly Free, less than 20% of the world’s population now lives in a Free country, the smallest proportion since 1995,” the report said. The report warned about India’s move towards “authoritarianism”, and said there was a “pattern” to the rising violence and discriminatory policies affecting the Muslim population and silencing of dissent by the media, academics, civil society groups, and protesters.
The decline, the report noted, was due to the government’s “crackdown on stirs opposed to a discriminatory citizenship law.”
70% of global internet shutdowns in 2020 were in India: Report
New Delhi: Nearly 70% of cases of internet shutdowns globally happened in India in 2020, according to a new report by Access Now, a global non-profit that works on digital rights and online freedom. Out of the 155 instances of internet disruptions, 109 were recorded in India, followed by Yemen with six instances.
The report, “Shattered Dreams and Lost Opportunities,” listed at least 29 countries which intentionally shut down or slowed the internet during 2020 despite “increased demand due to the coronavirus”.
“India imposed the lion’s share of internet shutdowns in 2020, topping the global shame list — just as it did in 2018 and 2019,” the report stated, while also mentioning the continuous disruption in Jammu and Kashmir, which did not have access to 4G internet services throughout 2020.
The report criticised the opaque manner in which these shutdown orders were passed and then implemented, and asked for more transparency while going forward. According to Access Now, The most common rationale for a shutdown in India during the year was “precautionary measure”, followed by threat to national security, to curtail the spread of misinformation, among others, it said.
“However, governments rarely mean what they say when it comes to internet shutdowns. When officials say they are using shutdowns to fight “fake news” or hate speech, it can mask an attempt to hide or distort information around political instability, obscure police clashes or targeted attacks, that take place during communal violence, or stop people from organising protests,” it added.