Siranush Ghazanchyan
Armenia ranks 63rd position (down from 61st last year in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders today.
Georgia has retained the 60th place, Russia is 150th, Turkey and Azerbaijan are ranked 153th and 167th respectively. Armenia’s southern neighbor Iran is 174th on the list.
Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands are ranked as the countries with the highest degree of freedom for journalists.
The 2021 World Press Freedom Index shows that journalism, the main vaccine against disinformation, is completely or partly blocked in 73% of the 180 countries ranked by the organization.
According to the report, media diversity has blossomed but the government that emerged from Armenia’s Velvet Revolution in the spring 2018 has failed to reduce the media’s polarization.
“The editorial policies of the main TV channels coincide with the interests of their owners. Transparent media ownership and journalistic independence are still far from being achieved,” Reporters Without Borders said.
“There is concern about the volume of judicial proceedings against journalists and about excesses in the fight against fake news. The involvement of the security services in combatting disinformation and attempts to legislate without prior discussion with civil society and journalists are alarming. But investigative journalism is flourishing online and is well placed to play a major role in a national offensive against corruption,” the report reads.
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