Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

Who Violates Rights of Journalists in Zugdidi?

August 17, 2006

Who Violates Rights of Journalists in Zugdidi?

On the 14th  of August, at about 19.30, a gun shot was heard in one of the Tsalenjikha suburbs, near restaurant ‘Samtsatskhvi’. Later it was discovered that some criminal settlement took place there. The incident resulted in three people wounded. Brothers Lasha and Levan Egias were immediately taken to ‘Respublika’, the Zugdidi central hospital, where they were promptly operated on.  One of them needed his leg to be amputated.

Journalists, having arrived at the hospital met family members, friends and close relatives of the wounded, who categorically objected to the journalists’ presence and did not let them film the injured. Moreover, some tough young men used physical force against them. The journalists were forced to leave the hospital after a half-an-hour-long quarrel with the relatives. It must be pointed out that there were no policemen in the hospital at that time.

Zurab Mikava was accused of wounding the Egias brothers and Tvalavadze. Mikava disappeared from the scene of the crime. As we later found out, both victims and the accused are criminal authority figures – the reason they did not want to deal with journalists. However, the mass media is also disliked by the police in Zugdidi, particularly when the question involves either a crime they committed or their abuse of power.

One similar incident occurred in January this year: Joni Gulordava, an officer with the Tsalenjikha regional office, within the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Police Department badly wounded D. Ghvinjilia in the face with a pistol. The accident took place in the Zugdidi district in the village of Ingiri, at restaurant ‘Didebuli’. The high ranking policemen did not allow journalists, having arrived at the scene, to film the facts. Both threats and verbal insults were heard there.

The journalists went to ‘Respublika’ Zugdidi central hospital where the victim was being operated on. Family members of the policeman Gulordava, his sister, mother, wife and friend did not only orally but physically assaulted the journalists. If medical staff and patrol policemen had not assisted them, they would have ended up in a similar situation to Ghvinjilia. 

Unfortunately this was not the end of things. The next day the journalists, having arrived at the hospital regarding a different case, were again attacked by Joni Gulordava’s family members and friends. Attempts at breaking a camera were filmed; Malkhaz Basilaia and Gocha Lemonjaria, journalists of TV Company ‘Mze’ and Nato Berulava, a journalist of an independent newspaper were physically assaulted. The incident was also witnessed by Zugdidi Police Department staff and several officials of the Regional Police Office, who observed the situation with indifference.

Now the criminal case against Joni Gulordava has apparently been dropped. Consequently, persecution against him has also stopped and he moves freely around the district and beyond in his expensive new car.

Nato Berulava, Zugdidi

News