Malta’s freedom ranking has again been downgraded by a Washington-based democracy monitor, with researchers blaming the “inefficacy of the country’s anti-corruption institutions”.
According to Freedom House’s latest report, released this week, although still regarded as free, Malta’s score dropped one point to 91 out of 100. The country’s score has been on a downward trend for the past couple of years, dropping to 92 points in 2018 from 96 in the previous year.
There were 35 countries that obtained better scores than Malta and another five – Costa Rica, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, St Vincent and Grenadines and Bahamas – being awarded the same points.
Read: Malta falls from 17th to 33rd in world freedom ranking
While country-specific reports have yet to be published, a spokeswoman for the US organisation told Times of Malta Freedom House noted “a number of developments related to corruption in Malta”.
“While Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was exonerated in an investigation related to his alleged ownership in an offshore company, we echoed the European Commission’s concerns over limitations in anti-corruption measures and rule of law,” she said.
“Though there is generally a free…
