On April 4, Georgian media outlets, including pro-government TV company Imedi (1;2;3), POSTV, “Resonance” (1,2), and others reported that the organization “Varieties of Democracy” (V-Dem) published the core civil society index, which examines the non-governmental sector and “evaluates how firmly and properly civil society organizations fulfill their public mission and duties, how healthy (freely and actively) the interests of citizens are expressed in the non-governmental sector.” The above-mentioned media outlets claim that according to the 2023 index, the score of the non-governmental sector of Georgia has significantly worsened, and in one year the rating position has decreased from the 27th to the 77th place in the world.
Pro-government expert Ghia Abashidze shared the photo of TV Imedi in various Facebook groups and published it on his own Facebook page.
Media outlets disseminated the information regarding the core civil society index without context. In fact, the index is comprised of 3 indicators: CSO repression, CSO entry and exit, and CSO participatory environment. In 2023, compared to the previous year, the index worsened in the first 2 indicators, which are mainly influenced by the actions of the government. Media outlets do not provide readers with information about this detail, therefore, creating the impression that V-Dem negatively evaluated the work of non-governmental organizations in Georgia.
Information published by media outlets is retrieved from V-Dem’s Core Civil Society Index. According to the information published by the organization, the indicator for Georgia in 2022 was 0.92, and in 2023 it fell to 0.81.
V-Dem attaches an explanation to each indicator, explaining how it has been measured. As we read on the website, the core civil society index measures how strong civil society is and uses three criteria in the process.
The CSO participatory environment indicator measures the extent to which people are involved in civil society organizations. A maximum of 3 points is given to the country if there are many diverse CSOs and it is considered normal for people to be at least occasionally active in at least one of them.
The second indicator concerns CSO repression and examines whether the government attempts to repress civil society organizations. In case of a minimal score (0), the government violently and actively pursues all real and even some imagined members of CSOs. They seek not only to deter the activity of such groups but to effectively liquidate them. Examples include Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany, and Maoist China. In the case of the maximum point, civil society organizations are free to organize, associate, strike, express themselves, and to criticize the government without fear of government sanctions or harassment.
The third criterion measures to what extent the government achieves control over entry and exit by civil society organizations (CSOs) into public life. When a minimal score is given to a country, the government exercises an explicit monopoly over CSOs. The only organizations allowed to engage in political activity such as endorsing parties or politicians, sponsoring public issues forums, organizing rallies or demonstrations, engaging in strikes, or publicly commenting on public officials and policies are government-sponsored organizations. In the case of the maximum point, the government does not impede their formation and operation unless they are engaged in activities to violently overthrow the government.
Accordingly, according to the definitions, we can see that 2 of the three indicators depend on the government. Specifically, an index of whether organizations are under government repression and an index of whether the government allows them to freely engage in public life.
V-Dem allows us to see how a country’s assessment of criteria has changed over time. In the case of Georgia, comparing the years 2022 and 2023, we see that 2 out of 3 criteria have deteriorated, and 1 has improved. It is worth noting that the criteria that depend on the government’s approach to civil society have deteriorated. From 2022 to 2023, only one criterion – the CSO participatory environment- has improved.
Change in the scores in 2022-23 The media outlets cover the index scores without context. The articles prepared by them do not discuss the criteria used by V-Dem to create the core civil society index. The articles do not say anything about the fact that 2 out of 3 criteria depend on the government, and the deterioration of the results was caused by the deterioration of these indicators. Accordingly, media outlets create the impression that V-Dem negatively assessed the work of non-governmental organizations in Georgia.
The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.
Read detailed instructions for editing the article.
Read detailed appeal instructions.
