di Stefano Giantin

(ANSA) - TRIESTE - Hungary has recorded for the sixth consecutive year a decline in its rating on democratic standards and is about to be thrown out of ''democracies''. The corruption level has grown in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia. Political and economic pressures against the independent media have increased in Latvia, Lithuania and in the Czech Republic.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the central government remains ''paralyzed'' by inter-ethnic and political conflicts.

Macedonia, after ten years, has been downgraded to ''transitional'' or ''hybrid'' democracy, due to the deterioration of working conditions in the mass media and to corruption. The situation is better in Romania, where the general ''conditions'' have evolved after the political upheavals in 2012 and some signs of optimism can be found in Serbia and Kosovo, thanks to ongoing dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, and in Albania, with the ''normal'' transfer of powers as a result of the general election.

These are the key points of the ''Nations in Transit 2014'' report (http://www.freedomhouse.org/report-types/nations-transit), compiled by the independent watchdog 'Freedom House' and dedicated to central and eastern Europe, Balkans, Russia and the countries of the former Soviet bloc. The organization, based in Washington, gave all these countries different marks (on a scale from 1, the highest grade, to 7), in relation to democratic progress.

As for the Balkans, the common denominator emphasized by Freedom House is that ''dysfunctional governments'' have caused a constant lowering of democracy scores. In the region, Kosovo is the worst (democracy score, 5.14), since it is considered as a '' consolidated semi-authoritarian regime'', even though the country ha recorded some improvements compared to 2012, with respect to electoral process, civil society, democratic ruling institutions. (ANSA).