Freedom House Report 2017: Georgia Remains among Partly Free Countries

United States-based non-governmental organization (NGO) Freedom House has released its annual report ‘Freedom in the World 2017,’ which says that Georgia remained among the partly free countries in 2016.

Freedom in the World 2017 evaluates the state of freedom in 195 countries and 14 territories during the calendar year 2016. Each country and territory is assigned between 0 and 4 points on a series of 25 indicators for an aggregate score of up to 100. These scores are used to determine two numerical ratings, for political rights and civil liberties, with a rating of 1 representing the freest conditions and 7 the least free. A country or territory’s political rights and civil liberties’ ratings then determine whether it has an overall status of Free, Partly Free, or Not Free.

This year Georgia got 64 aggregate points out of 100, which means that the country is “partly free”. However, according to the scores of its neighboring countries- Russia (20 points), Azerbaijan (14), Armenia (45), Turkey (38), Georgia is in the leading position in the region.

Georgia is described as “partly free” according to its media freedom and as “free” according to internet freedom.

As for political and civil freedoms, the country got 3 out of 7 points.

The report shows that the number of countries designated as Free stands at 87, representing 45 percent of the world’s 195 polities and approximately 2.9 billion people- or 39 percent of the global population. The number of Free countries increased by one from the previous year’s report.

The number of countries qualifying as Partly Free stood at 59, or 30 percent of all countries assessed, home to nearly 1.9 billion people, or 25 percent of the world’s total. The number of Partly Free countries stayed the same as the previous year.

49 countries out of 195 were diagnosed as Not Free, and, among them, 11 countries have the worst aggregate scores for political rights and civil liberties.

These countries and scores are: Syria (1), Eritrea (3), North Korea (3), Uzbekistan (3), South Sudan (4), Turkmenistan (4), Somalia (5), Sudan (6), Equatorial Guinea (8), Central African Republic (10) and Saudi Arabia (10).

Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom and democracy around the world.

The NGO analyzes the challenges to freedom, advocates for greater political rights and civil liberties, and supports frontline activists to defend human rights and promote democratic change.

Founded in 1941, Freedom House was the first American organization to champion the advancement of freedom globally.

Thea Morrison

Source: Freedom House