The American public organization Freedom House notes the strengthening of democracy in Ukraine. This is stated in the organization's report "Nations in Transit-2005," according to "Ukrainian News." \n \nRatings across various categories are conducted on a seven-point scale, where 1 corresponds to the highest level of democracy and 7 to the lowest. In terms of the overall level of democracy, Ukraine received 4.50 points compared to 4.88 in the 2004 report. According to the organization's assessments, this is the highest level of democracy for Ukraine since 1999. \n \nFor the democratic quality of the electoral process, Ukraine received 3.50 points compared to 4.25 in last year's report. On the "civil society" scale, the country was rated at 3.00 points compared to 3.75 last year. Media independence was rated at 4.75 points compared to 5.50 in the previous report. The democratic quality of governance increased at the national level (5.00 compared to 5.25 last year) and remained unchanged at the local level (5.25). The level of judicial independence rose to a rating of 4.25 compared to 4.75 in the organization's previous report. And only the level of corruption remained at the same level - 5.75. \n \nFreedom House notes that Ukraine showed the greatest progress of all the countries covered by the study. "The trend of Ukraine's national development changed fundamentally at the end of 2004, when people voted for democratic change, and after mass falsifications in the second round of voting, effectively defended their choice through peaceful demonstrations...," the report says. \n \nThe report covers the period from January 1 to December 31, 2004. "Nations in Transit is an annual comparative multilateral study devoted to former 'communist' countries. This year it covers 29 countries. \n \nRecall that in the "Nations in Transit" report, Freedom House noted the weakening of democracy in Ukraine in 2004. \n \nFroodom House is a non-governmental organization that implements programs in support of democracy, freedom of speech, market economy, and observance of human rights. \n \nThe organization's headquarters is located in Washington.