29/04/2015 15:22
Armenia shows slight progress in new press freedom index
Armenia has slightly improved its positions in Freedom of House’s latest press freedom index, leaving behind most of its regional neighbors and partners in the Eurasian Economic Union.
With 61 points, it ranks the 135th in the 2015 Press Freedom Index, an inch higher compared to 2014. But it maintains its status of a Not Free country.
Overall, the document points out to drawbacks and decline in the global press freedom.
“Conditions for the media deteriorated sharply in 2014, as journalists around the world faced mounting restrictions on the free flow of news and information— including grave threats to their own lives.
“Governments employed tactics including arrests and censorship to silence criticism. Terrorists and other nonstate forces kidnapped and murdered journalists attempting to cover armed conflicts and organized crime. The wealthy owners who dominate private media in a growing number of countries shaped news coverage to support the government, a political party, or their own interests. And democratic states struggled to cope with an onslaught of propaganda from authoritarian regimes and militant groups,” the authors say at the beginning.
Azerbaijan’s score declined from 84 to 87 “due to the government’s heavy-handed attempts to punish independent journalists through arrest, imprisonment, physical intimidation, and verbal harassment. The government also used raids and arbitrary criminal investigations to impede the operations of or close multiple media organizations.”
The country ranks the 87th on the global index and the 9th in the Eurasia region (where Armenia places the fourth). The report highlights particularly increasing detentions and closures under existing security or emergency laws and persecutions against journalists.
Turkey (65) and Iran (92), which rank respectively the 142nd and 190nd, are also rated as Not Free. Georgia, with 48 points, is among the Partly Free states. It ranks the 93rd on the index.
Russia (83) shares the 180th position with Ethiopia. The other EEU member states, Kazakhstan (85) and Belarus (93), rank the 185th and 194th respectively.
The full document can be accessed here.