Jordan is still ranked among the top free Arab countries in 2018, according to the annual report published by Freedom House: Freedom in the World 2018.

The Kingdom is still occupying the fourth place among Arab countries since 2017, when its status was improved from not free to partly free, it also witnessed significant improvement in the political rights rating, due to electoral law changes that led to fairer parliamentary elections.

On Middle Eastern levels, Tunisia kept its first place from 2016, followed by Lebanon as the two most free countries in the region during 2017.

In the third place came Morocco, categorized as a partly free country, with Jordan in the fourth place followed by Kuwait in the fifth.

In contrast, Algeria, Iraq as well as Egypt, were ranked among the least ‘not free’ countries in the region, before Qatar, Oman, UAE, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and KSA, respectively, ranked as countries with the least freedom rankings.

However, Syria was ranked among one of the least countries with freedom ranking -1 out of 100, due to the humanitarian crisis and the war that lasted for seven years and still counting.

On international levels, Norway, Sweden and Finland were ranked on the top of the index with freedom level: 100%, followed by Canada 99%.

However, the United States’ freedom status was 86%, amid an accelerating decline in American political rights and civil liberties.

The report indicated that democracy levels had faced the most serious crisis in decades during 2017. As guarantees of free and fair elections, the rights of minorities, freedom of the press, and the rule of law were attacked around the world.

The report confirmed that 71 countries suffered declines in the political rights and civil liberties, with only 35 registering gains, marking the 12th consecutive year of decline in global freedom.

Freedom in the World Index is an annual report assessing the condition of political rights and civil liberties around the world. It was first published in 1973 by the US-based Freedom House.