‘Restricted’: Nearly 7 billion people worldwide lack full civil rights
Al JazeeraJUN 1
Report: About 7B People Lack Full Civil Rights
Above: A lone right-wing protester draped in an England flag watches left-wing protesters during a demonstration on Aug. 7, 2024. Image copyright: Vuk Valcic/Contributor/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
The Spin
Left narrative
This latest report exposes a genuine global crisis where authoritarian governments systematically crush dissent and eliminate civil liberties. At the same time, far-right extremists and libertarians attack rule of law institutions as enemies of the will of the people, and governments abuse existing laws or create new ones to silence civil society. Hopefully, civil society is fighting back with strategic litigation.
Right narrative
International democracy and civil liberties watchdogs disguise their progressive political preferences as scientific findings, producing misleading reports that lean left in their judgments and punish any country daring to offend their center-left sensibilities. This bias becomes particularly evident when comparing rankings, as Canada and EU countries are ranked better than the U.S., despite their much more restrictive laws on speech.