Georgia ranked 60 on 2019 World Press Freedom Index

The RSF Indexevaluates the state of journalism in 180 countries and territories every year. In their most recent report, Georgia was ranked 60th on the list.

“Georgia’s media landscape is pluralist but still very polarized. The reforms of recent years have brought improvements in media ownership transparency and satellite TV pluralism, but owners often still call the shots on editorial content” – reads the report.

Georgia’s rank in 2019 is up by one place (compared to 61st place in 2018). RSF has been ranking Georgia since 2013. Throughout the years, the country has seen a steady rise on the yearly reports. For comparison, the ranking in 2013 was 100th. Since then, the situation for the media has been improving.

In the 2019 index, Georgia is labelled as “pluralist but not yet independent”. The main concerns expressed regarding Georgia are the dispute over ownership of Rustavi 2 and the lack of convincing results regarding the kidnapping of Afgan Mukhtarly, an Azerbaijani journalist that fled his government and was abducted in Tbilisi in 2017 and reappeared in police custody in Azerbaijan.

The court dispute over Rustavi 2 started in 2015, when Kibar Khalvashi, a former co-owner of the TV channel, filed a lawsuit to regain his stocks in Rustavi 2. According to Khalvashi, his company shares were illegally taken away from him by the United National Movement (UNM) government.

The RSF report is alarming, as it shows the continuous decline of the countries regarded as safe, where journalists can work in complete security, while authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media.

Aside from Georgia’s ranking, there are few important elements in the report that are interesting to look into.

For the third consecutive years, Norway is ranked first in the 2019 Index, while Finland (up two places) has taken second place from the Netherlands (down one at 4th).

Amongst other authoritarian regimes, Russia takes the 149th place, “where the Kremlin has used arrests, arbitrary searches and draconian laws to step up the pressure on independent media and the Internet” notes the report.

Only 24 percent of the 180 countries and territories are classified as “good” or “satisfactory” (see the chart), as opposed to 26 percent last year. while over three-quarters of the world is now considered “problematic”, “difficult” or “very serious” for media freedoms. (see the diagram)

In the Index, the United Stateshas fallen three places in this year’s Index, ranks 48thand the media climate is now classified as “problematic”, according to RSF, this is a result of “an increasingly hostile climate that goes beyond Donald Trump’s comments”.

Concerning the regions in general, The European Union and Balkansregistered the second biggest deterioration in its regional score measuring the level of constraints and violations. The report list some of the key countries that have contributed the most to the deterioration of the region. Including France, where an unprecedented level of violence was observed during the Yellow Vest protests. The UK remains one of the worst counties in western Europe for freedom of the press. But, nevertheless, it is still the region where press freedom is respected the most.

According to a separate report recently published by RSF, a total of 80 journalists were killed in 2018, 348 werein prison, and 60 were being held hostage.

“If the political debate slides surreptitiously or openly towards a civil war-style atmosphere, in which journalists are treated as scapegoats, then democracy is in great danger. Halting this cycle of fear and intimidation is a matter of the utmost urgency for all people of good will who value the freedoms acquired in the course of history.” – said RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire.

The alarming deterioration of the press freedom is only part of a greater trend of declining freedoms and democracy all around the world. Earlier this year, the Freedom House think tank’s annual report found 2018 was the 13th consecutive year of deteriorating freedoms around the globe.