20:00, 22 October 2009

"Reporters without Borders": Georgia sees more media freedom

The situation with the freedom of mass media in Georgia has improved; and in the rating of the international NGO "Reporters without Borders" (RwB) the country "has stepped up" by 39 positions and now takes the 81st place.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that according to the same report other countries of the region - Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia - are ranked as Nos. 111, 146 and 153 accordingly.

The "Rosbalt" Agency reports that the previous rating of Georgia was caused by deaths of journalists in the country during last year's August war.

The "News-Georgia" Agency remarks that at the same time Georgia failed to regain its pre-war position No. 66, from which the RwB had dropped the country to No. 120.

According to the RwB's report, Russia went down by 12 positions in the "Freedom of Press Index", and is now No. 153 out of 175 because of "violence applied to journalists and human rights defenders."