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Civil Society Provides Bail for the Detained Photo Reporters

July 15, 2011

Sopo Getsadze

By the initiative of Alia Holding, the journalists held a next protest action in front of the President’s Residence and requested release of the detained photo reporters. The journalists started collecting signatures with the request to release them under bail.

Alia Holding assumes that in case of collecting 200 000 signatures they will be able to release the detained photo reporters under bail. The document of provision of bail has been composed separately for each of the three detainees. The citizens signed one of the documents or all three of them and indicated their private number expressing their consent to provide guarantee for the photo reporters.

As the editor of the newspaper Alia Dimitri Tikaradze states by signing this document the citizens agree that in case of the release of the detainees, they take on responsibility that the photo reporters will continue working with the investigation: they will not hide, will come to the summons, give testimony and etc…

According to the explanation of the organizers, the signatures of the civil society will be transferred to all organizations that can influence this case: international and human rights organizations, embassies, Office of Prosecutor, Ministry of Internal Affairs and President of Georgia.

The media representatives conducted a theatrical action-performance in front of the President’s Residence. They were dressed in white T-shirts with the sign No Pictures – No Democracy. The action participants closed their eyes, covered their ears and started whistling.

As the founder of Alia Holding  Giorgi Bregvadze noted with humanrights.ge, closing your eyes means that the journalists could not show the government any proof and the closed ears means that “they don’t hear our voice.”

The gathered society talked about the meeting of Vano Merabishvili and journalists which took place yesterday.

Aleko Elisashvili, TV Company Caucasia: “Yesterday’s meeting was very good. We were convinced that we should continue protesting. I was more convinced that these people are not guilty. It is good that we heard from the primary source – they have nothing but the telephone recordings. That is why we should continue protest rallies. Vano Merabishvili told journalists yesterday: I swear these people are agents. I do not believe in Vano Merabishvili’s vow. Show us evidence or release these people. We are going to continue protesting until they release them and things are clear.”

The journalists are talking about continuing the protest rallies and they expect the result – release of the detainees soon.

Davit Akubardia, TV Company Caucasia: “Vano did not want to release some people but when some people requested he did it in a minute. Did not they release one more detainee – Shakh Aivazov?! I call on the government to be reasonable and inevitably release others otherwise more people will come here and this place will be full. This Reichstag-Residence has a bad luck. They should better release the detainees.”

Merab Metreveli, Media Palitra: “The protest rallies should continue so the attention of international media is constantly drawn to this issue. The international society should pressure the government so the court is being fair and we hear what they want from the detainees and what concrete facts they have. If the court was independent and just of course we would not request to remove the classification top secret. We do not trust the court and that is why we ask them to show the evidence.”

The director of TV Company Caucasus Nino Jangirashvili shares this opinion. According to her, it is not excluded that in the nearest future the photo reporters might confess the crime that can be explained by the pressure against the detainees: “The government is at the deadlock. They do not have any factual evidence. The journalists and international society are exercising serious pressure against them to present the facts and the only solution is confessional testimony.”

The former head of the Human Rights Committee Avto Imnadze states with Human Rights Center that he cannot understand why the material well known for Georgia’s enemies are closed for Georgians. “People state that this information has been transferred to Russia and it is closed for us?! When the journalists went to meet Merabishvili yesterday why did they not ask this?! If Moscow knows, New York knows, everybody does, why are you hiding this from us?! If our spy is sent somewhere, it is understandable to close the obtained material but why they close the information that our enemies has,” – states Imnadze.

Except for the journalists, the action was joined by the family members of the detainees, NGOs and opposition parties.

Saba Tsiktsikashvili, journalist: “I am protesting against the President’s decision according to which the photographers were arrested. They did not like the photos that the photo correspondents took on May 26th. Free journalists and media should not be victims of President’s private decision.”

Nestan Neidze, Giorgi Abdaladze’s wife: “I am supporting this action. If Giorgi was not among them and Zura was not their friend I would still stand here as a citizen. Thanks to all who are not afraid, who show their solidarity and fight for truth. I do not hope that we will achieve anything but deep in my heart I still have a spark of hope. At least we should try to do our best.”

Sozar Subari, Georgian Party: “I came back this morning. I was in Strasbourg and Brussels where I met with the head of the Human Rights Commission of European Parliament Thomas Hammarberg and NGOs. Irma Inashvili and I visited International Federation of Journalists where they knew nothing about this fact or about the persecution carried out against journalists on May 26th. The fact is that in many places where they should know things they do not know. It is inadmissible that International Federation of Journalists (which has representatives in Georgia) does not know about the detention of photo reporters. I talked to Thomas Hammarberg about the illegal persecution and imprisonments carried out against the members of political parties. We also talked about detention of journalists. It should be noted that this issue drew special interest. They could not believe that the detainees were related to the theme of espionage.”

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