During a year “marked by a notable setback for global freedom,” Latvia also has slipped in a rating a political rights and civil liberties, the Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group Freedom House announced Jan. 16.

Although still listed as a country that is free, political rights in Latvia slipped to a rating of 2, one less than the best score possible, Freedom House said in its report, Freedom in the World 2008. Civil liberties remained at a rating of 1, the same as last year.

“For 2007, Latvia registered a slight decline due to a series of corruption scandals that implicated high-ranking officials,” according to the report, which nonetheless praised continued advances in democracy in the Baltic region.

In the Freedom House survey, 1 represents the most free and 7 the least free rating. The ratings, according to Freedom House, represents events from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 of last year.

Estonia and Lithuania maintained rankings of 1 for both political rights and civil liberties. Russia, listed as a country that is not free, was given a rating of 6 for political rights and 5 for civil liberties.