On May 1 the international human rights organization “Freedom House” released its annual report on freedom of press in the world in 2011. “Freedom House” assessed the media situation by assigning a numerical score from 1 to 100 on the following categories: free (1-30 points), partly free (31-60 points), not free (61-100) – the lower the score, the higher the freedom. The latter was defined by three dimensions: legal, political and economic environments in which media operate. The sum of all three dimensions yielded the cumulative rating of the media situation in each country.
Out of 197 countries and territories surveyed in 2011 in 66 (or 33.5%) media were recognized free, in 72 (36.5%) – partly free and in 59 (30%) – not free. Thus, only 14.5% of world inhabitants live in countries that enjoy free press, 45% have a partly free press, and 40.5% – not free press.
According to the “Freedom House” study, in 2011 Armenian media are still classified as not free (since 2002). The rankings of Armenian media are the same 65 points, as in 2010.
The “Freedom House” report for 2011 is available at http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2012.
