FH: Georgia has lowest level of Internet censorship among countries of Southern Caucasus

According to the non-governmental organization named "Freedom House" (FH), Georgia has the highest level of freedom on the Internet among the countries of Southern Caucasus. Armenia is a bit behind Georgia, while Azerbaijan is a country with "partially free Internet."

Georgia has scored 26 points, Armenia – 28 and Azerbaijan – 55, says the report of the New York-based FH.

According to its methodology, the countries below 30 points are considered to have freedom of the Internet, from 31 to 60 – have partially free Internet, and those from 61 to 100 points are the countries, where there is no freedom of the Internet.

Among the reasons for the relatively high ranking of Georgia experts call the new rules for the formation of the National Commission for Communications, introduced in October 2013 and the launch of the government's portal of publicly interesting information.

Armenia has seen a growth of accessibility to the Internet. While in 2012 it was accessible only to 39% of the country's citizens, by the end of 2013 this figure reached 46%, said the FH.

Azerbaijan, on the contrary, experiences restrictions on access to the global network. This was manifested by closing Internet cafes because of the ban on assemblies in the run-up to the presidential elections held on October 9, 2013. Besides, Azerbaijan sees growth of persecution of journalists of online media.

Let us note here that Russia received 60 points from the authors of the FH's report.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.