SCO: Unfree, Undemocatic, Dangerous for the Press?

China and Russia have long been known to rank poorly on a variety of indices measuring freedom of the press, civil rights & liberties and other values connected to the concept of democracy. With Belarus joining the ranks of the regional organization Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), dubbed by some as an "anti-NATO", how do its member states fare?

Of all ten members of the SCO, China still ranks lowest on average. On Freedom House's Freedom on the Net index, it comes last in rank 70, while the Freedom in the World report ranks it 188th out of 210 countries. With Belarus (rank 190) and Tajikistan (rank 200), two SCO member states have even lower scores on the latter. On Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index, only Iran fares worse than China (rank 176 out of 180), with Belarus (rank 167), Russia (rank 162) and India (rank 159) only a couple of steps ahead.

The latter country, which joined the SCO in 2017, consistently ranks better than the other member states of the organization, placing 41st out of 167 in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, 41st out of 70 in the Freedom on the Net index and 92nd out of 210 in the Freedom in the World report.

One important caveat to keep in mind when assessing index scores: All cited indices are created by non-profits, think tanks and other organizations in Western countries. Therefore, specific assessments in sub-indices could potentially have been interpreted through a Western viewpoint. However, there are no comparable indices offering an evaluation through a different lens.