Freedom under assault across the globe, says US

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States warned in a report on Wednesday that basic freedoms are being increasingly denied to people around the globe.

US Secretary of State John Kerry described these widespread denial of freedom as a "global governance crisis."

"In every part of the world, we see an accelerating trend by both state and non-state actors to close the space for civil society, to stifle media and internet freedom, to marginalize opposition voices, and in the most extreme cases, to kill people or drive them from their homes," he said.

The State Department report, which Kerry wrote the preface for, evaluates the state of freedoms across the world country-by-country.

While Kerry warns of the increasing crackdown on freedom worldwide he nevertheless believes this to be a reaction to an increase in demand for greater freedom.

"Some look at these events and fear democracy is in retreat. In fact, they are a reaction to the advance of democratic ideals," he explained, "to rise demands from everything culture and region for governments that answer to them."

The report denounced the repression of civil rights groups in China and Russia, torture in Iran and North Korea, as well as increased press censorship in Turkey

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via Defense News