GEORGIA: 2003 World Press Freedom Review

2003 World Press Freedom Review

International Press Institute, Vienna

Georgia, like its Caucasian neighbours this year, also experienced turmoil. One of the main political events of the year – the parliamentary elections on 2 November – has been the centre of media attention and has also influenced the government’s relationship with the mass media. A two-week delay in releasing final results was announced on 6 November, on 14 November, protesters started pressing Shevardnadze to resign and, on 20 November the Central Election Commission announced that the two political blocs loyal to Shevardnadze had won first and second place. The main opposition party came in third.

Due to evidence of massive voter fraud, opposition supporters demanded Shevardnadze’s resignation; activists went to Tbilisi on November 21, and a state of emergency was declared on November 22, as protests took place all over Tbilisi. Shevardnadze resigned on November 23, and the change of government became known as the "revolution of roses." Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze became acting president until the January 4 presidential elections.

A court in the town of Kutaisi suspended the broadcasts of Dzveli Kalaki on January 25. This is the city’s only independent radio station. According to reports, some residents complained about harmful radiation emitted by the station, and it turned out that the station lacked a health certificate. Some station employees believe that this was influenced by Orthodox church officials in response to the station’s weekly programmes about the local Catholic community. The new director of the Kutaisi Press House, where the station is located, had reportedly also been involved in the incident.

The station’s journalists protested, and students from the local seminary attacked the reporters. Five days later the court allowed the station to resume broadcasting. On January 31, a crowd blocked the street where the station is located. Police arrived on the scene, but left after the crowd, some armed with sticks, rushed the station. Another attack on Dzveli Kalaki took place on March 28, when a crowd armed with axes rushed the station and broke its antenna. After that, the station could no longer broadcast. The station was also sued earlier this year for polluting the surrounding region with its equipment.

Kutaisi is Georgia’s second largest city after the capital, and many independent media in the area were prohibited from working. In a disturbing incident at Kutaisi Television, the entire staff of the local television station were hospitalised after a gas leak on April 24. The station resumed broadcasting on April 30. Kutaisi TV is one of two television channels in the city, but the authorities prefer the other channel, Rioni, which starts its news programmes with information about the governor’s activities. Kutaisi TV, on the other hand, is more critical of the local government, and has broadcast reports about corruption. In February, the television station was charged with not paying rent, and its property was confiscated.

During a rally on January 29, supporters of former president Zviad Gamsakhurdia accused Tea Tuashvili, a reporter for TV-9, as well as a cameramen for the station, of bias and working for the highest bidder. The media workers were attacked and beaten by the crowd, who also broke their camera. On December 13, an unidentified man shot at the independent Georgian journalist Iralki Chikhladze in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku.

The first trial concerning the murder of journalist George Sanaia, murdered in July 2001, started in January, but his family was wary of the investigation. His wife, Khatuna Chkhaidze, declared that only witnesses whose evidence was welcome to the prosecutor’s office were questioned, and the murder itself was not being investigated. She claimed that her husband’s murderer was unknown, and that he was killed as a result of his investigative work. On February 4, a Rustavi-2 journalist and cameraman were beaten after the trial of Grigol Khurtsilava, who was charged with Sanaia’s murder. Khurtsilava was sentenced to a 13 year prison sentence on July 9.

Georgia’s most famous independent television station, Rustavi-2, on its February 16th edition of the "60 Minutes" programme, said that government officials whom the programme had previously caught on hidden camera talking about bribes had been fired and later rehired. The station also reported about corruption in the judiciary and the police. As a result, in March, the Supreme Court requested that the Prosecutor General’s office conduct an inquiry into the programme.

Rustavi-2 also faces a, approximately US $ 4.6 million criminal libel lawsuit in the Supreme Court brought by Valeri Asatiani, the former Minister of Culture. The case was filed after a convicted criminal, Irakli Kereselidze, claimed that Asatiani hired him to murder the Minister’s business partner. On April 24, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that Rustavi-2, "60 Minues" and Kereselidze had to pay 50 thousand lari to Asatiani for moral damages, and pay all of Asatiani’s court costs. Akaki Gogichaishvili, the author of "60 Minutes" and Kereselidze, in their turn, asked for 10 million lari as compensation for moral harm, but did not receive it.

Many other government officials are enraged by the station's critical reports and have filed lawsuits against it. On August 11, a Tbilisi court ruled that Rustavi-2 must pay 1 million lari to Akaki Chkhaidze, the head of Georgian Railways, Ltd., and one of the leaders of the government bloc "For a New Georgia", whom "60 Minutes" accused of extortion. The station was also ordered to issue a retraction.

On October 11, the police took away the camera and videotapes from a Rustavi-2 crew, after they filmed president Shevardnadze’s visit to the town of Poti. The tapes showed police beating Kmara youth movement activists, who organised a protest rally during the visit.

On October 12, Rustavi-2 journalists were assaulted in the town of Zugdidi in Western Georgia, while they were filming a protest rally of the Kmara youth movement. According to the journalists, several armed people, who support the government-backed bloc "For a New Georgia," beat the cameraman. Another Rustavi-2 television crew was assaulted in the Samegrelo province on the same day.

Media are also still subject to death threats. On May 8, Malkhaz Gulashvili, the president of the Georgian Times Media Holding, which is one of the country’s most influential media companies, told journalists that he had been informed by a government official that someone was planning to kill him. The company’s newspapers have been sued several times. Tengiz Pachkoria, a Tbilisi correspondent for ITAR-TASS, was attacked and beaten at the entrance to his apartment on June 23 in Tbilisi.

Levan Tabatadze, a cameraman with Ajara TV, was brutally beaten by a State Chancellery security guard on September 4. Tabatadze received head injuries as a result and had to be hospitalised. Along with other cameramen, Tabatadze was standing at the State Chancellery entrance, when a security guard told him not to film. The guard asserted that Tbilisi television crews were not allowed to film in Ajaria, or take photos of the Supreme Council building there. Ajara TV reporter Nato Kiknadze was also beaten.

The offices of the Poti newspaper, located in the town of Poti, were vandalised on October 2. Almost all of the paper’s equipment was stolen, preventing it from working as usual. The Association of Regional Mass Media Outlets believes that the attack was not just a robbery because the local police station is located just 100 metres away. Also, the security system in the building stopped working during the two hours of the theft. Moreover, Poti published several articles criticising the local authorities’ corruption and bureaucracy. The newspaper had been threatened several times, but this is the first time that an attack took place.
Some newspapers receive support from president Eduard Shevardnadze, who on July 2 criticised Nino Burjanadze, Chairwoman of the Parliament, for threatening journalists. Burjanadze criticised Sakartvelos Respublika for reprinting an article from a Russian newspaper. However, Shevardnadze then continued to say that she should not have claimed the article was ordered by him.

On September 3, a Tbilisi district court annulled a decree on mass media coverage passed by the Central Election Commission on August 25. The decree barred mass media from commenting on politics during the fifty days preceding the election, but many non-governmental organisations and media unions protested. The decree was passed by the Commission just before its resignation. Once former human rights ombudsman, Nana Devdariani, was appointed as the new chairman of the Commission. Devdariani vowed to do everything in her power to revoke the decree.

Election time also meant more attacks on the media. On October 2, the Georgian Labour Party leader Shalva Natelashvili decided to end any interactions with Rustavi-2 during the period before the parliamentary elections because he believed that Rustavi-2 was actively supporting the opposition bloc. The information department said that Rustavi-2 was directly involved in vote rigging during the previous parliamentary election, broadcasting false popularity ratings.

TV station Rustavi-2 accused the "For a New Georgia" bloc of trying to rig the vote in the parliamentary election in the town of Rustavi on November 2. The station stated that ballot boxes from two of Rustavi’s voting stations were not delivered straight to the electoral commission, but were taken by the police to the bloc’s local election headquarters for about 15 minutes. The channel showed the ballot boxes in the boot of what it described as an unmarked police vehicle parked outside the "For a New Georgia" office. A correspondent for Rustavi-2 asked police officers to explain the situation but they refused and threatened to break the television camera.

On November 6, the Central Election Commission ("CEC") discussed the work of Rustavi-2. The CEC were displeased with the fact that the station broadcast footage of Kmara youth movement activists, which warned the members of the CEC not to deprive the people of their choice and threatening to take measures if the election was not run honestly. Most CEC members declared that Rustavi-2 does not have the right to broadcast such "irresponsible clips" because votes were still being counted and the footage could incite people against the Commission.

Rustavi-2 covered the opposition rallies in detail without hiding its sympathies, and attacks on the station, continued until the national elections board cancelled Rustavi-2’s accreditation to cover the election on November 13 for broadcasting a message from the Kmara movement. Many government supporters accused Rustavi-2 of increasing social tensions, and reporters for the company were subject to attacks.

The chairman of state television Zaza Shengelia resigned from his post on November 19, after Shevardnadze criticised the first channel’s coverage of political events in the country. Shevardnadze told his cabinet that the role of state television is to protect the interests of the state, and claimed that independent television channels Imedi and Mze have been more objective in their coverage, while Shengelia argued that state television has the responsibility of presenting diverging points of view. Other officials have also criticised the state-run television channels for broadcasting programmes that did not coincide with the government’s point of view. Shengelia’s wife, Sesili Gogoberidze, resigned from her post as minister of culture.

Kavkasia TV was taken off the air on November 27, but the Georgian authorities were not able to give a reason for the action. The station believes that this is in response to their critical attitude of the present authorities. Kavkasia TV was taken off air twice in the early days of the "revolution of roses." On November 22, the government controlled TV channel experienced a news blackout, and an opposition station claimed that the authorities were trying to take it down.

When Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov arrived in Tbilisi on November 22, reporters were not allowed to see who had arrived. Journalists asked for access, but security offices moved towards the cameramen and attempted to break the camera. Rustavi-2 journalist, Maia Asatiani, who was reporting from the airport, was assaulted.

After the elections and the change in government, attacks on the media continued. A large explosion shook central Tbilisi on December 3, between the state television building and the Rustavi-2 headquarters. Windows in the state TV building were broken. On December 29, the studios of Rustavi-2 came under attack from a rocket launcher. The building was damaged, but no one was hurt.

Source: International Press Institute
http://www.freemedia.at/wpfr/Europe/georgia.htm