By Paul Vartan Sookiasian
Armenia remains the freest country for the press in the South Caucasus and one of the best in the entire former Soviet Union, the Paris-based non-profit Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, has determined.
In the latest edition of its yearly World Press Freedom Index, published Friday, Armenia ranks 43rd out of 180 countries surveyed, with a score of 71.6 out of 100. That puts Armenia in what RSF calls as a “satisfactory situation” with regard to media freedom. Armenia’s position has steadily risen over the past few years, though it remained relatively stable this year, with an increase of just one point.
This year, RSF specifically namechecked CivilNet as one of several “independent news sites” that “are thriving and are fulfilling an independent watchdog role that is essential in a democracy.”
Still, in a statement to CivilNet Friday, RSF pointed out that there’s room for improvement for Armenia: “Despite a pluralistic environment, the media landscape remains polarized. The country is facing an unprecedented level of disinformation and hate speech, especially over the Nagorno-Karabakh territorial dispute and the ongoing threat of war with Azerbaijan. Some political groups carry out disinformation operations and target journalists.”
The report states that “journalists are often subjected to pressure, insults and violence by both ruling party officials and opposition politicians, as well as their supporters,” and that such violence generally goes unpunished. Also criticized is the legal framework that regulates the sector, as it does not sufficiently protect freedom of the press nor follow European standards.
Armenia’s slight improvement this year comes despite a trend in the opposite direction, both regionally and globally.
In particular, Georgia has shown “a very notable decrease,” dropping 26 positions to 103rd this year. The ruling Georgian Dream party “continues to polarize society, cultivates a rapprochement with Moscow and conducts a policy that is increasingly hostile to press freedom,” RSF wrote.
Azerbaijan “has also seen all of its indicators fall, especially its political indicator, after cracking down on the media before its presidential election” earlier this year, falling to 164th place.
Notably, the report calls out both Georgia and Azerbaijan for employing media censorship, which “has intensified in a spectacular mimicry of Russian repressive methods.”
As for the rest of the region, Turkey and Russia are each just ahead of Azerbaijan, in 158th and 162nd places respectively, while Iran is worse, at 176th.
Armenia’s score makes it the second-highest ranking former Soviet country outside the European Union, with only Moldova, in 31st place, scoring better. What’s more, Armenia surpassed the United States, which fell to 55th, and also tops multiple EU countries, including Poland and Hungary.
The total score is evaluated based on five indicators, political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context and safety. Armenia’s worst by far is economic context, due to a lack of ownership transparency of media outlets and editorial independence in Armenia.
Overall, this year’s report notes the rise in world leaders who are hostile to press freedom and seek to control social media. A particularly problematic issue is the burgeoning use of generative artificial intelligence to create deepfake videos to further political goals through disinformation.
