Coalition for Freedom of Choice Will Actively Communicate With Public Defender During Pre-Election Period

On December 12, representatives of the Coalition for Freedom of Choice met Public Defender Giorgi Tugushi in the Public Defender’s Office. The Coalition members provided the Ombudsman with detailed information about the problems which printed media encountered after the Tbilisi City Hall launched the project “1 000 Booths”; they also discussed recent facts of the human rights violations in the country.

The Coalition members informed the Public Defender in what fields they intend to work and how they plan to cooperate with the Ombudsman’s office.

After the meeting Giorgi Tugushi told journalists that similar meetings will enhance cooperation. “In general, we have common goals – not to leave victims of human rights violations without attention and to properly address to each fact of human rights violations,” Tugushi said.

He added he would work on various issues together with the Coalition members. “They informed me about several facts of human rights violations; I had information about part of them. However, there were several cases on what the Coalition members asked me to pay particular attention. Besides that, we agreed on active communication during pre-election period. They will update our office with information on certain cases like legislative initiatives or others. All our activities will support improvement of human rights situation in Georgia,” said Tugushi.

The Coalition members and the Public Defender spoke about removal of press-booths from Tbilisi streets.

“The real damage of the press distribution shall be evaluated. Some booths are dismantled in Tbilisi and new ones appear instead them. The Coalition members promised to update me with detailed information about the damage of the press-distribution [caused by the City Hall’s project] and what is the situation concerning the newspapers distribution in the country. Afterwards, we will jointly work on prevention of restricted availability of population to the printed media,” said the Public Defender after the meeting.

The Coalition members stated their cooperation with the Ombudsman will actively continue in future.

Coalition for Freedom of Choice