“The press freedom climate deteriorated sharply during the year as journalists were harassed and assaulted while attempting to cover the Gezi Park protests that broke out in Istanbul in May, and dozens were fired or forced to resign in response to sympa thetic coverage of the protesters’ demands,” the Washington-based watchdog said.

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“Other prominent journalists were fired due to their cover age of sensitive issues like negotiations between the government and the PKK or the corruption scandals involving Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and his associates that emerged in December. The firings highlighted the close relationship between the government and many media owners, and the formal and informal pressure that this places on journalists.”

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As a result of all this, Turkey lost six points of the score for press freedom that Freedom House gave it in 2013. With 62 points, it was ranked 134th among the 197 countries included in the watchdog’sFreedom of the Press 2014 report.

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Each of the surveyed countries receives a numerical score from 0 (the most free) to 100 (the least free), which serves as the basis for a press-freedom status designation of “free” (score of 0 to 30), “partly free” (31 to 60), or “not free” (61 to 100).

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Armenia was ranked 134th in the world.

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