Freedom House: “Georgia won’t face political earthquakes in 2018”
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Freedom House, a US-based, government-funded non-governmental organization for democracy, political freedom and human rights says in its Nations in Transit 2018 report that Georgia will not experience any political earthquakes in 2018.
The year will be shaped by the upcoming presidential election, which will mark the last time a Georgian president is directly elected by the people.
Even in the rather unlikely event that an opposition candidate wins the presidency, the presidential election will not substantially change the political balance in the country,” the report reads.
Freedom House reports that it remains to be seen whether opposition parties can stem their trend of fragmentation and close ranks in preparation for parliamentary elections in 2020.
"For the ruling Georgian Dream, which has mastered the craft of popular semi-democratic politics, the main challenge in 2018 will be tackling the economic and social hardship that feeds public dissatisfaction more than any political issue,” the report reads.
The report says that Georgia’s civil society will continue exerting its influence on political processes throughout 2018, but it is unclear whether Georgia’s media landscape, which suffered from political interference in 2017, will recover in 2018.
Although Georgia’s media landscape remains pluralistic and vibrant, the editorial freedom of key media outlets experienced setbacks in 2017,” reads the report and says that the setbacks were caused by the appointment of Vasil Maglaperidze, an individual related to the founder of the Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili, as the new head of Georgia’s Public Broadcaster and the ownership dispute in the opposition-minded Rustavi 2 private broadcaster.
The report says that the year 2017 was, overall, a period of slight setbacks for Georgia’s democratic development as the Georgian authorities found it difficult to strike a balance between the contradictory goals of advancing democratization on the one hand and consolidating power on the other.
Georgia has the most free media environment in the Caucasus region based on the newest report released by leading international watchdog Freedom House earlier today.
Georgia has the most media freedom in the region.
Georgia’s overall democracy score was 4.61 and was classified as "Transitional Government” or "Hybrid Regime”. In last year’s report the country’s democracy score was 4.64, which meant Georgia has improved its score by 0.03 in the past 12 months.
Georgia is one of only two countries to register improvements in the level of democracy in Eurasia in 2014, says independent watchdog Freedom House.
The Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili says that Freedom House’s latest report, Nations in Transit 2018, released yesterday is "extremely biased and based on unbalanced information” about Georgia. "I believe that Freedom House should think twice before it spreads such biased assessments about Georgia’s democratic development level,” the PM stated today about the report which lowered Georgia’s democracy score from 4.61 to 4.68.
According to the report, one of the most significant human rights issues were arbitrary detentions and deprivation of life by Russian and de facto authorities of the country’s citizens along the administrative boundary lines with the Russian-occupied Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Freedom House, the US-government funded non-governmental organisation, has made corrections in its Nations in Transit report on Georgia, after the survey was harshly criticized by the Georgian prime minister, parliament speaker and other top figures of the country. The corrections were made on May 13 and 14 and they concern the media issues.
Freedom House has released its Freedom in the World 2019 Report, which says that Georgia holds regular and competitive elections, and its democratic trajectory shows signs of improvement.
Georgia is among the world’s top ten countries, which enjoy freedom on the net, based on the Freedom House report released earlier today. The Freedom on the Net report assessed 65 countries between June 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019.
Georgia has scored 61 points in the Freedom in the World 2020 report by Freedom House, an annual global report on political rights and civil liberties, covering developments in 195 countries and 15 territories between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019.
Freedom House annual Nations in Transition 2021 report assessed Georgia’s democracy score at 3.18 out of 7, which is only 0.04 points more than in 2012 and represents a fall from 3.25 which Georgia scored last year.