Freedom House Notes Progress, But Media Remains Still 'Partly Free' in Georgia Georgia's ranking in an annual survey of global press freedom by Freedom House has improved for third consecutive year, but the country still remains in the category of “partly free.” The survey, which covers 2011 and assesses press freedom in 197 countries and territories, ranks Georgia 111th, sharing position with Bangladesh, Kenya and Mauritania, with rating of 52. Georgia's ranking in previous similar survey, covering 2010, was 1118th with rating of 55. Each of the 197 countries and territories examined in the survey are assigned a rating between 0 and 100 with countries scoring from 0 to 30 are given status of having "Free" media; from 31 to 60 - "Partly Free" and 61 to 100 - "Not Free".

Ivanishvil's TV Channel Launched A screen grab from the Channel 9 shows Natia Lazashvili, who for eleven years was a newscaster at Rustavi 2 TV till 2006, and who now anchors Channel 9's main news bulletin at 9pm. A new Tbilisi-based TV channel, co-owned by leader of opposition coalition Georgian Dream Bidzina Ivanishvili's wife, launched broadcast late on Monday evening with its main news bulletin. Currently the channel is broadcasting in "trial mode", its executive director Kakha Bekauri says, with three news bulletins during a day, a late-night political talk show and a satirical political puppet show.