Georgia improves position on World Press Freedom Index

Freedom of the press in Georgia is improving, according to a report by international organisation Reporters without Borders.

The World Press Freedom Index report, released today, noted Georgia had improved its position worldwide on an international scale that ranked freedom of the press among 180 countries.

Georgia ranked 69th among 180 countries by the World Press Freedom Index report.

The 2015 report ranked Georgia in 69th place.

When compared to last year’s result, Georgia had improved its position on the Press Freedom Index by 15 places. In 2014 Georgia ranked 84th among the 180 counties surveyed.

Georgia's the World Press Freedom Index score by years.

The Index saw each country evaluated in seven categories – Pluralism, media independence, environment and self-censorship, legislative framework, transparency and infrastructure. According to this Georgia gained a score of 27.7.

Lower scores mean better press freedom and higher scores mean less press freedom. For example Finland, which was named the country with the most press freedom, gained a score of 7.52, while Eritrea, which was bottom of the list, gained a score of 84.86.

This year’s World Press Freedom Index highlighted the worldwide deterioration in freedom of information in 2014.

"Transparency about media ownership has improved, although news outlets are politically polarised and still not very independent,” stated Reporters without Borders.

According to the 2015 World Press Freedom Index, the top five countries with the most press freedom are: Finland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, while North Korea and Eritrea were the two lowest-ranked countries with very little press freedom.