The number of countries with the status of "not free" is at a record level in 15 years, according to a report published on Wednesday.

The coronavirus pandemic, economic uncertainty and conflicts around the globe have led to a drop in the world's level of freedom in 2020. This is the authors of the annual report by the international human rights organization Freedom House concluded.

The number of countries with the status of "not free" is at a record level in 15 years, according to a document released on March 3. The freedom rating has been downgraded for 73 countries.

The greatest losses of the rights and freedoms were suffered by Kyrgyzstan and Belarus, where last year after the elections there were massive protests against the election results. Describing the situation in Russia, Freedom House referred to the problematic elections and a rigged referendum last year, which, according to the document, could lead to President Vladimir Putin's rule until 2036.

As of 2020, according to the organization, 54 countries are not free.
The freedom rating has been downgraded for 73 countries.

At the same time, North Macedonia, which recently joined NATO, is among the most successful states.

Australia is among few free countries with ranking 97 out of 100 also due to the incident of what the authors of the report limited media freedom on reporting on Cardinal Pell's trial.

Sweden and Norway preserved their position of fully free countries with maximum ranking of 100 points out of 100 points.

The annexed Crimea, as well as certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, which are under the control of the pro-Russian separatists, are also marked as “not free”, which is lower than the rating of Ukraine itself.

As of 2020, according to the organization, 54 countries are not free. These countries account for 38 percent of the world's population, the highest since the decline in global freedom began in 2006.

About a fifth of the world's population lives in free countries. It is indicated that the quarantine measures in some cases turned out to be excessive and were accompanied by cruelty.

The regions in trouble, according to the Freedom House report, included Algeria and Hong Kong.

According to the report, "authoritarian enemies have inflicted great harm on the defenders of democracy by tipping the international balance in favor of tyranny."

The authors of the report concluded that incumbent autocrats increasingly used force against opponents, while civic activists, who faced the threat of prison and physical harm, lacked international support.