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| Giorgi Ghviniashvili |
Giorgi Ghviniashvili, Kakheti Regional Governor does not cooperate with independent journalists any more. The correspondents who criticize the Regional Governor and reveal the violations committed by regional government are placed on so called “black list” made by the regional administration.
Roman Kevkhishvili, the correspondent of Kakheti based radio station Hereti, said that after Giorgi Ghviniashvili, the former Tbilisi Prosecutor, was appointed to the position of Kakheti Regional Governor the transparency degree of the regional administration greatly deteriorated.
“Ghviniashvili does not answer the phone calls of journalists unlike his predecessors. Since spokesperson was dismissed from the regional administration it has become impossible to get in touch with regional governor and to get public information from the regional administration. The regional governor’s office had been open both for the people and journalists before Giorgi Ghviniashvili and his team came to the office. Now the Kakheti Regional Governor’s office looks more like a prosecutor’s office in terms of transparency. It is not difficult to see what is going on there: when you do not communicate with journalists personally and even dismiss spokesperson, this shows that the region is managed with the methods of a prosecutor’s office,” said the journalist of Radio Hereti.
Natalia Sarkisashvili, the Deputy Editor-in-chief of regional newspaper Imedi said the Kakheti Regional Governor has stopped cooperating with the journalists of her newspaper and the Information Centre of Kakheti since the incident of January 7, 2009. “On January 7, the head of Gurjaani Police Division abused journalists and even threatened that they would be arrested. The articles regarding the incident were published in our newspaper many times; both radio stations and news agencies spread information as well. An audio tape of the head of Gurjaani Police using foul language against the whole Georgian media was also published. We wrote in one of our articles that Soso Martashvili, the head of Gurjaani Police Division is Giorgi Ghviniashvili’s close friend; Ghviniashvili trusts him and patronizes him. We have tried many times to find out what Giorgi Ghviniashili thinks about the incident, whether he condemned the fact of insulting journalists by the law enforcer or not. However, the only thing Giorgi Ghviniashvili told TV companies was that “he does not interfere in the work of law enforcement bodies”. What does this mean? We did not ask him to investigate the fact of intimidation of journalists, we simply wanted to find out what he thought about the incident,” said Natalia Sarkisashvili, deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper Imedi.
She also claims that newspaper Imedi was informed by reliable sources that it was the Kakheti Regional Governor who instructed the head of Gurjaani Police Division to threaten journalists.
“We tried to find out what regional governor thought about the incident. However, our attempt was in vain. Having failed to interview Giorgi Ghviniashvili, we published an article on the editor’s page of our regional newspaper in which we asked the Kakheti Regional Governor publicly if he really instructed Soso Martashvili, the notorious police officer to insult and intimidate journalists. In the same article we protested against Ghviniashvili setting up a clan in Kakheti and trying to make us all the slaves of a police regime. We also published the facts that proved our allegations in the article. This irritated Ghviniashvili and he stopped giving interviews to us at all. He and other officials have forgotten that under the law public officials shall have sense of patience,” said Natalia Sarkisashvili.
Zhana Didebashvili, the regional correspondent of Radio Palitra cannot get comments on various issues from the regional leaders either. Zhana claims that she was placed on so called “black list” several years ago when she was the head of Kakheti regional Bureau of TV and radio station Imedi and covered the fact of cutting off the vine by one of Kakhetian peasants.
Zhana Didebashvili: “After being dismissed from media holding Imedi, I work mostly on news. Due to the fact that the regional administration refuses to communicate with me, I get their comments from my colleagues. This is how I try to avoid unilateral news pieces. For instance, if I attend a press conference of opposition representatives and they accuse the regional government, I have to gain counter arguments from the government but as they refuse to contact me, I find out from my colleagues who cover the same issue.”
It is noteworthy that there are several media outlets with whom Kakheti Regional Governor and regional administration cooperates actively. They are quite generous to Kakheti regional TV companies who are funded from local budget under the verbal order of the regional governor that contradicts the law. The fact that TV companies are funded from local budget influences editorial politics and the level of independence of these media outlets. The local administration also cooperates with regional correspondents of Rustavi 2 and First Channel. These correspondents usually report about the departures and meetings of the regional governor, or whom he presents with awards. Ghviniashvili and his deputies answer the questions of newspaper journalists too only if the publishers or editors of these newspapers are their relatives or friends; in most cases the regional administration should have guarantees that the newspapers would not criticize them.
Why does the Kakheti regional governor cooperate only with one part of journalists in the region? We failed to get answer on this question from Ghviniashvili because he does not answer our phone calls.
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