Freedom House is a research organization funded by the U.S. government-funded but independently run.
Its report said that Hungary's score had deteriorated more than any other country in the region except Russia. Hungary is 43% democratic compared to 45% a year earlier, the report alleged.
The report particularly denounces the conduct of the last parliamentary elections, which it said were marred by "irregularities, abuse of administrative resources and media distortions," and "the Orbán regime's growing intolerance for dissenting voices."
Since his return to power in 2010, Hungary's leader Viktor Orbán has gradually curtailed checks and balances in the media and the judiciary, regularly drawing criticism from the European Union, according to the report.
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