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Freedom House found that 2019 was the fourteenth consecutive year of decline in global freedom. The gap between setbacks and gains widened compared with 2018, as political rights and civil liberties declined in 64 countries and improved in just 37. The negative pattern was most visible near the top and the bottom of the scale: More than half the countries that were rated Free or Not Free in 2009 have suffered a net decline in the past decade.