Georgia Remains among Partly Free Countries in Freedom House Report 2018
The United States-based non-governmental organization (NGO) Freedom House has released its report “Freedom in the World - Democracy in Crisis” in which Georgia remains in the list of partially free countries, as in previous years.
Freedom in the World is an annual global report on political rights and civil liberties, composed of numerical ratings and descriptive texts for each country and a select group of territories.
The 2018 edition covers developments in 195 countries and 14 territories from January 1, 2017, through December 31, 2017.
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, like in 2017, which means that the country is “partly free”.
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 ruling Georgian Dream party recently pushed through constitutional amendments that—combined with the financial backing of its reclusive billionaire patron—will make an effective challenge by the fractured opposition in future elections even more unlikely, potentially cementing the party’s control for years to come,” the report reads.
In key findings, the organization says that Seventy-one countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties, with only 35 registering gains. This marked the 12th consecutive year of the decline in global freedom.
The report says that over the period since the 12-year global slide began in 2006, 113 countries have seen a net decline, and only 62 have experienced a net improvement.
By Thea Morrison