By Mark Dovich
Armenia climbed to 51st place out of 180 countries, up from last year’s ranking of 63rd, in the latest update to the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders on Tuesday. The organization specifically pointed to the work of CivilNet, as well as several other independent outlets.
Notably, this year’s index makes use of an updated methodology, based on five indicators that examine each country’s political, economic, legal, security, and sociocultural contexts.
“In light of this new methodology, care should be taken when comparing the 2022 rankings and scores with those from 2021,” according to a press release from the well-respected, Paris-based watchdog organization.
Nonetheless, it is clear that the press freedom situation in Armenia has improved in the years since the Velvet Revolution of 2018, local journalists and media leaders say.
The Armenia report name-checks CivilNet, as well as Azatutyun, Factor.am, and Hetq as “prospering” independent outlets that are “fulfilling their role as an essential counterweight to democracy.”
Still, Armenia faces serious press freedom issues, the report says, including rampant misinformation and disinformation on social media, the law criminalizing defamation that passed last year, the limited financial independence of private media, widespread anti-media rhetoric, and the prominence of media outlets that are “affiliated with major political and commercial interests.”
The index overall “reveals a two-fold increase in polarisation amplified by information chaos – that is, media polarisation fuelling divisions within countries, as well as polarisation between countries at the international level,” the press release said.
A record 28 countries were classified as having a “very serious” press freedom situation, while only eight countries – seven European countries plus Costa Rica – had a “good” environment for the press.
Neighboring Georgia dropped dramatically to 89th place, from 60th place last year, with Reporters Without Borders noting “an unprecedented number of physical assaults on journalists” in Georgia last year.
Last July, a group of more than 1,000 anti-LGBTQ protesters brutally attacked over 50 journalists covering a planned pride march in Tbilisi, resulting in the death of cameraman Lekso Lashkarava.
With Georgia’s decline, Armenia now has the greatest level of press freedom of any country in the region. This year, Azerbaijan was ranked 154th, Iran 178th, Russia 155th, and Turkey 149th.
