Georgia gets upgrade in index of Reporters Without Borders media rating
Tweet 
Share
International, non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders, which promotes and defends freedom of information and the press, has upgraded Georgia’s freedom of press index by three points.
The 2018 World Press Freedom Index for Georgia is 61, while it was 64 in 2017.
Georgia’s media is pluralist but still very polarized. The reforms of recent years have brought improvements in media ownership transparency and satellite TV pluralism, but owners still often call the shots on editorial content,” the report reads.
The report reads that the outcome of the continuing dispute over ownership of the main national opposition TV channel, Rustavi 2, "will therefore have a big impact”.
Violence against journalists is less frequent although threats are often reported,” the organisation stated.
Reports Without Borders said that Georgia has traditionally offered refuge to dissidents from neighboring countries, "so Azerbaijani dissident journalist Afgan Mukhtarli’s abduction in Tbilisi in 2017 sent shockwaves through the exile community,” the report reads.
French-based, international non-profit organisation Reporters without Borders (RWB) has released its annual 2016 World Press Freedom Index which revealed Georgia has progressed in terms of media freedom and transparency in recent years.
Freedom of the press in Georgia is improving, according to a report by international organisation Reporters without Borders.
Georgia has scored its best rating in 15 years on the Freedom of the Press report and improved its rating from 49 in the previous survey to 47 in the current one. The country is mentioned as "partly free” but was the leader in the region.
Georgia has been named as one of Eurasia’s brightest stars by independent watchdog organization Freedom House.
Georgia comes in 60th of 180 countries in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index by the international, non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders, which promotes and defends the freedom of information and the press.
OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir says that he is concerned by recent developments in Adjara TV and Radio Public Broadcaster of Georgia, a state-funded media outlet in the autonomous region of Adjara in western Georgia, and about ‘reported management interference’ in the channel’s editorial policy.
The 2020 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders says that ‘Georgia’s media are pluralist but still very polarized,’ adding that the reforms of recent years have brought improvements in media ownership transparency and satellite TV pluralism,’ but owners still often call the shots on editorial content.’
The Communications Commission, a regulatory body in the broadcasting and electronic communications field, has dismissed allegations that the government’s proposed changes to the law on electronic communications are a threat to media freedom.