Incident in the Gurjaani District Administration

Information Center of Kakheti

Representative of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure Kote Khmaladze insulted Gela Mtivlishvili, journalist of the Information Center of Kakheti (ICK) and forcibly expelled him of the session hall.  The incident occurred on January 17, at about 11:00 am in the office of the Gurjaani district administration.

On January 16, ICK published an article: Victim of the natural disaster to lose his house. The article was about a farmer, Vano Chankoshvili, 28, who was damaged by natural disaster. He owns 2 hectares of peach garden in Vejini village of Gurjaani district. In February of 2012 he took an agricultural loan of 9 000 lari from the micro-financial organization Finca Georgia. The farmer said he had spent the money on the peach garden and planted melon and vegetables in the half hectare of his land. Heavy hail of May 10, 2012 destroyed his harvest. After the disaster, Vano Chankoshvili asked Finca Georgia to allow him to pay the debt in the fall of 2013. He provided the micro-financial organization with the notification from the Vejini village territorial entity which confirmed that his family owned peach garden (1 400 plants) in the village and the hail of May 10 destroyed about 80% of his harvest. Finca Georgia did not consider the farmer’s request and several days ago he was notified that unless he paid 16 000 lari before January 23, 2013 his house will be sold. He has a wife and four-year-old child.

“I applied to the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure to get comment on the issue. Head of press-center Magda Popiashvili suggested me to apply to their representative in Kakheti who was head of the working group in Gurjaani. Today, I arrived at the district administration office and asked where the commission was working. When I entered the small hall, I noticed many familiar faces there. I greeted everybody and asked about Kote Khmaladze. I explained that I wanted to talk with him about a victim of natural disaster, who was not inserted on the list of victims. My question irritated Khmaladze and replied to me in an aggressive tone that he was not obliged to answer my question and demanded to leave the room because I hindered their work. I told him the ministry representatives had sent me to him. Despite that, he kicked me out of the room. About 10 people witnessed this incident – employees of the district administration and the ministry. Afterwards, I returned to my office, took a camera and went back to the district administration. I wanted to get comment from Khmaladze about his behavior. Initially he locked in the room of the district governor. When he left the room, I asked to explain his behavior. He again claimed that I hindered the commission’s activities and called patrol police and interim district governor. When my colleagues arrived at the district administration, Khmaladze said I had rudely applied to him, broken into the session hall, etc. I would like to underline that the Ministry had sent me to Khmaladze and I had not behaved unethically in the administration. It is a pity that ministry’s representatives still continue to treat journalists rudely even after the new minister came in office,” said Gela Mtivlishvili.

ICK requests the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure to immediately and adequately respond to the incident. Before that, ICK’s journalists will not attend events organized by the Ministry including the meeting with the representatives of regional media planned in the ministry today on January 17. 

On the same day, the Ministry spread statement regarding the incident which reads: “Today, in the morning, a verbal controversy occurred between Gela Mtivlishvili, head of Information Center of Kakheti and Konstantine Khmaladze, deputy head of Regional Development Department of the Ministry in Gurjaani. According to the journalist, the ministry’s representative insulted him. Internal audit department took up the case to find out the situation and to respond to it; they will study the incident and prepare corresponding conclusion. Unfortunately, Gela Mtivlishvili refused to cooperate with the Internal Audit Department. Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure recommends the head of ICK to cooperate with the internal audit department of the Ministry in order to timely and impartially study the incident. We also declare that the Ministry is open for every media source and journalist and is ready to cooperate with them on any issue,” the statement reads.

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