Terrorized Journalists Protest in Kakheti

Terrorized Journalists Protest in Kakheti

Journalists from the Kakheti regional newspaper ‘Imedi’, organized a protest in front of regional administration building in Gurjaani, demanding the right to freedom of expression. NGOs and kind readers of the newspaper joined the protest calling for an immediate end to the intimidation of journalists. The local government responded to the protest with slanderous placards and further accusations against the journalists.

Police officers, relatives, classmates and other friends of the Gurjaani Regional Acting Governor, Kako Sikharulidze, also gathered in front of the Gurjaani regional administration building before the start of the protest. They became annoyed by the protestors’ placards, which demanded things such as: ‘Kako Sikharulidze - Stop Terrorizing Independent Journalists’.

Despite a request from the Gurjaani Regional Administration to postpone or cancel the protest, the organizers still managed to hold it. It appears that, unlike the ‘Imedi’ newspaper and the ‘Tanamgzavri’ broadcasting company, certain representatives of other media sources experience no problems from the government.

Journalists from the ‘Imedi’ newspaper described why they were protesting:

“Over the course of this year, it has not been only one journalist who has been subjected attacks by the authorities. Gela Mtivlishvili, an editor of the ‘Imedi’ newspaper experienced a whole series of attacks.

In February of 2006, the Telavi Prosecutor’s Office started a criminal case against Gela Mtivlishvili and Roman Kevkhishvili, a journalist at the ‘Tanamgzavri’ broadcasting company. These same two journalists were both verbally and physically assaulted by Telavi Regional Administration officials. In addition to this, a robbery of an office of the ‘Progresi’ independent newspaper still remains uninvestigated. What is more, last week, three pro-government journalists published the findings of a ‘Journalist Investigation’ portraying Gela Mtivlishvili as habitual criminal.

All the problems mentioned above stem from the Governor of Kakheti, Petre Tsiskarishvili, the Telavi Regional Acting Governor, Gocha Mamatsashvili and the Gurjaani Regional Acting Governor, Kako Sikharulidze. We demand a stop to the terror they are inflicting upon journalists. The Soviet Union flags we are holding are to show that Gurjaani still lives within that time and that system”

Students at a branch of the Ivane Javakhishvili State University of Tbilisi, representatives of the NGOs and the ‘Tanamgzavri’ broadcasting company, also joined the protest. “We expressed our solidarity with the journalists, who despite lots of problems continue to cover the facts objectively and do not avoid asking delicate questions”, said Tinatin Pkhovelishvili, who is head of the ‘Lawyers Advancing Centre’.

Independent journalist Leila Murakashvili described the tactics used by the those who opposed the protest: “Representatives of the Gurjaani Regional Administration had prepared some humiliating and slanderous placards to try and oppose the journalists. The placards were not designed to express objective criticism of Gela Mtvilsishvili’s activites, but simply to offend his dignity. It should be stated that the local government ‘won this round of the battle’ with the journalists. It managed to divide the journalists who at times opposed each other. Once again the protest revealed that the media in Kakheti is split.”

During the protest, Tea Alaverdashvili, a regional correspondent of the Social TV station informed the media about a press-conference in the administration, where Gela Mtivlishvili was accused of corruption. It should be noted that Tea Alaverdashvili is the spouse of Paata Jachvliani, a cameraman for the same TV station and press secretary of the Gurjaani Regional Acting Governor. A press secretary of the Gurjaani Regional Acting Governor later voiced the administration’s demand that a criminal case be started against Mtivlishvili.

The concerns of the correspondents of one regional TV company (also, by chance called ‘Imedi’) appeared to be heightened when suddenly there appeared in the ranks of the protestors, on one of the placards, a photo of the Kakheti Gvernor, Petre Tsiskarishvili. The sight of the photo prompted ‘Imedi TV’ reporter Zhana Didebashvili to exclaim: “Maybe Kako Sikharulidze and Gocha Mamatsashvili oppress journalists. But, Petre - he is innocent. Who came up with such an idea?” Didebashvili also instructed her cameraman to only film the protest in a way that it would not show many people attending the event.

Gela Mtivlishvili explained the behavior of this fellow journalist: “Despite the deep respect that I have for the majority of ‘Imedi TV’ staff, I must say that Didebashvili covers any events or facts concerning the local authority subjectively, because her daughter, Mari Shashviashvili, is the press-secretary of Petre Tsiskarishvili. As for Maia Mamulashvili, she is a regional correspondent of the ‘Rustavi 2’ broadcasting company and an editor of the local newspaper which issued the statement saying that it was me who organized the attempts to assassinate myself. It is frustrating because such media sources are obviously controlled by the government”.

On Thursday, March 23 at 3 p.m., a coalition of NGOs – the ‘Civil Society for Democratic Georgia’, organized a press-conference in the offices of ‘Article 42 of the Constitution’ in order to protect the rights of the journalists.

Mariam Varazashvili