Corruption remains to be Moldova's most serious problem, according to the Freedom House's annual report “Nations in Transit in 2008”, which was made public on Tuesday, June 24. The judicial system, national governance, the civil society and the independence of the media are the chapters at which Moldova lags behind other countries in the region, Info-Prim Neo reports. On a scale of 1 to 7, with a score of 7 representing the weakest democratic performance and 1 the strongest, Moldova gets 6 points for its efforts to fight corruption. According to the report, Moldova’s authorities have continued their efforts to implement a more effective legal framework to combat corruption and are increasingly cooperating with international organizations. However, recurrent shortcomings and the slow pace of implementation do not justify an improvement in the rating, which remains unchanged at 6. The report points out that Moldova’s national governance continues to be marked by tight presidential control over the legislature, executive, and judiciary, which makes Moldova a semi-consolidated authoritarian regime. Concerning media scores, Moldova alongside Russia and Azerbaijan underwent the steepest declines, as powerful elites exerted greater influence over news outlets. The public broadcaster Teleradio Moldova is still under excessive government influence, as is the Broadcasting Coordination Council. Journalists investigating corruption, as well as their sources, were intimidated and harassed. The only clearly positive news among the former Soviet republics is in post–Orange Revolution Ukraine, where authoritarian control has given way to politics that are messy but vibrant and competitive. Despite the many problems it faces in its new period of democratic development, Ukraine has safeguarded civil society and the news media, two indispensable tools for advancing deeper political reform, the report says. Freedom House is a Unided States-based international nongovernmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights. Its annual assessment of the degree of democratic freedoms in each country is widely used in political science research.