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The world is becoming more authoritarian

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance writes:

The world is becoming more authoritarian as non-democratic regimes become even more brazen in their repression and many democratic governments suffer from backsliding by adopting their tactics of restricting free speech and weakening the rule of law, exacerbated by what threatens to become a “new normal” of Covid-19 restrictions. For the fifth consecutive year, the number of countries moving in an authoritarian direction exceeds the number of countries moving in a democratic direction. In fact, the number moving in the direction of authoritarianism is three times the number moving towards democracy.

In their new global report, we can inter alia read that:

Some of the most worrying examples of backsliding are found in some of the world’s largest countries (Brazil, India). The United States and three members of the European Union (EU) (Hungary, Poland and Slovenia, which holds the chair of the EU in 2021) have also seen concerning democratic declines.

Although some statements in their reports can be questioned, the general trend of undemocratic development is alarming.

Download the global report or see regional reports on https://www.idea.int/gsod/

The Unspeakable

One lost his son, another his mother, another his brother, another his best friend. Twenty years later, these four men and their families live with the knowledge that they were not told the truth about the murder of their loved ones on September 11, 2001. In the face of overwhelming resistance, they continue to fight for the justice they deserve.

Don’t you dare challenge the government’s view

Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right underpinning all civil liberties. But in reality, we seem to have lost it in many parts of the world. Ban Ki-moon writes:

Some journalists risk intimidation, detention and even their lives, simply for exercising their right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas

This goes not only for journalists, apparently. Even expressions of art are affected. Recently, cartoonist Michael Leunig in Australia lost his job because he published a cartoon on Instagram. The cartoon was critical against mandatory vaccination. Now the cartoon seems to have been removed from Instagram too, but you can still see it elsewhere.

20 years since the nightmare began

and still no real justice in sight for the crimes  related to 9/11.

We can all read, for example on the website of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth,  that some still fight for justice. This is of course very important, but at the same time, we must face the truth: We don’t have a real justice system in many countries, especially when it comes to certain cases like this.

Contributing to the problem is that real journalism is so hard to find these days. Instead, many people, including many journalists, are like parrots repeating the official narrative or keep quiet about the inconsistencies in that narrative and facts that speak against it. A weird society has emerged, where many can be afraid of being called “conspiracy theorist” or even loosing their job, if they are open with what they really think.

Also, many forget the anthrax letters in connection to the 9/11 attacks. If you need to refresh your memory, you can use the search function on Accoun’s website to find some things we have written about that.