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Pressure on Journalist of Newspaper Rezonansi

August 3, 2011

Mariam Imerlishvili

On August 1st Human Rights Center held a press conference the goal of which was to inform the society regarding the facts of threats and pressure against the journalist Mariam Otarashvili.

According to the data of Human Rights Center, the journalist has been under the pressure by the displaced Governor of Akhalgori region Zurab Pitskhelauri for years the reason of which are the articles published in the newspaper describing the situation in Akhalgori.

“The pressure against me has been exercised for last two years. Zurab Pitskhelauri threatened me and used incorrect language. I have audio recordings as an evidence,” – stated Mariam Otarashvili at the press conference.

According to Mariam Otarashvili and her colleagues, the displaced Governor of Akhalgori region visited the editorial staff of the newspaper Rezonansi and advised the journalists to write articles “correctly.” Particularly, they were supposed to write the articles the way he wanted. He threatened that he would publish the material tarnishing their reputation if they did not.

“If there was not a real threat I would refrain from taking radical measures, but the threat is too real. I talked with Pitskhelauri as well. Several times he called me regarding Mariam Otarashvili’s articles,” – noted the deputy editor of newspaper Rezonansi Eliso Chapidze.

Human Rights Center took on responsibility to provide legal assistance for the journalist and addressed relevant measures.

“Our organization addressed the Main Office of Prosecutor of Georgia with a complaint requesting filing case against the Akhalgori Governor Zurab Pitskhelauri according to the offence of abuse of authority,” – stated the lawyer of Human Rights Center Nino Andriashvili.

Human rights defenders are concerned with the corresponding and are requesting the law-enforcement bodies to carry out relevant measures against such facts.

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