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Journalists Blame Press Secretary of Subeliani for not Fulfilling Duties

January 30, 2012
Gela Mtivlishvili

In the month of October of last year Transparency International Georgia addressed the Minister of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Refugees and Accommodation with a recommendation to effectively cooperate with the media outlets which are critical to its work. The Ministry did not consider the recommendation of the authoritative organization. The Ministry is still closed for independent journalists.

Several days ago Studio Re disseminated statement which states that for last four months there is “incomprehensible estrangement” between the Ministry and the Studio.

“Mrs. Eka who is a former journalist told us that our programs are too critical and biased and the Ministry cannot cooperate with us. This kind of evaluation is unacceptable for us and we cannot share it because the Ministry representative did not attend the recording. We have heard from our colleagues that Studio Re is not the only media organization to who the Ministry of Refugees expresses such tendency,” – the statement of Studio Re notes.

Eka Gulua has been in charge of press service of the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation for several years. Earlier she worked as a journalist for the newspaper Rezonansi. However, she has attacked Rezonansi numerous times after starting work in the Ministry.
“This is not the first instance when the Ministry is aggressive towards the newspaper. As a rule, the head of the press service of the Ministry Eka Gulua either leaves the questions unanswered or gives irrelevant answers taken out of the context. Then she constantly asks to double-check the recording. In all cases her comments correspond with the recordings. Nevertheless, the statement of the Ministry reads: “Rezonansi which is masked by the image of professional standards and objective journalism cut the official written comment sent by the Ministry and in this way disfigured the context of the article. The reason of this can be the incompetence or subjectivism of the journalist. However, the newspaper and its proponents claim on objectivity and impartiality. It should also be noted that the head of the Press Service Eka Gulua who is the author of this text has been working in Rezonansi which is masked by the image of professional standards and objective journalism for 8 years,” – states newspaper Rezonansi in the May 20th, 2011 edition of Rezonansi.

Eliso Chapidze, newspaper Rezonansi: “I was a mentor of one of the projects last year which studied the issues of compensation for IDPs. Despite the numerous attempts of journalists, they could not manage to get a comment from any employee of Subeliani not to talk about him himself. And then we are blamed for it.”

Natalia Sarkisashvili, Kakheti Information Center: “We cannot get any information from Eka Gulua – neither public information nor comments no matter what information is requested, on IDPs, refugees or eco-migrants. Last year, when the IDPs were brought to the village Bakurtsikhe from Tbilisi by truck and we requested a comment from the representatives of the Ministry, by the order of Gulua everybody left the place swiftly.”

Saba Tsitsikashvili, Shida Kartli Information Center: “We have never received answer on any letter not to talk about comments. Several times we called the employees of the Chancellery of the Ministry, but they cannot even find the letters. They have told us that they receive thousands of questions. Press Service does not respond at all.”

Nino Japaridze, Studio GNS: “As a rule, she is hardly accessible and sends nobody else for an interview.”

Giorgi Mgeladze, Studio Monitor: “Two years ago I worked on a journalistic investigation regarding the accommodation of IDPs in one of the buildings in Varketili. The thing is that this building was a private property. It had been bought by several lawyers a year ago and the Ministry did not have right to accommodate the IDPs in there. The case study showed that Koba Subeliani violated the law and we had access to one of the falsified decrees issued by him. For one week we tried to get a comment from the Ministry in vain. I remember I was forced to include the telephone recording of their Press Center in the film to have a balance.”

Tinatin Mosiashvili, journalist: “I was preparing a comprehensive reportage on the issue of natural disasters within the frameworks of the project of Civil Society Institute. I visited many villages where there was danger of disasters. I saw many villages inhabited by eco-migrants. It was important to find out what the state had planned for the sufferers of natural disaster. This issue belonged to the competence of the Ministry of Refugees as well. I addressed them. I came in the entrance and asked to go up. The employee of the Press Center told me that Eka Gulua was not there and asked me to leave my cell-phone number and they would contact me. I know Eka well and assured that they would call me I left the number and left the place. They did not call and moreover, Gulua did not even answer the phone afterwards. I went to the Ministry again after several days and wrote a letter. I requested information regarding the project in the sphere of eco-migration, also what sums were envisaged for this purpose. I had some time to prepare comprehensive reportage but not too much. I waited for the answer for 10 days. They did not write anything. I had completed the material and was waiting for the answer. I went to the Ministry once again. Gulua was at the meeting. Her office could not answer me. They did not offer me to go up. I waited for Gulua for four hours and wrote her an SMS “who do you think you are”. Besides, I called on the hot line to the entrance of the Minister and his assistants. Nobody answered me. I sat in the waiting hall near the Permit Bureau where there was just one chair and occasionally I gave my seat to the ladies dressed in black. Finally, Gulua came. She was furious how I dared to write that message. I could bring no information with me from the Ministry. My material “Before the risk turns into the catastrophe” was printed in the Netgazeti without their comments. I understand that there is nothing envisaged for eco-migrants, but why does this Ministry have a Public Relations Service? I thought how they would treat me if I was IDP if I am treated in this way when I am a journalist and just want a comment.”

For the whole day long we tried to contact Eka Gulua to get her comment as a response to the accusations of journalists. However, we could not manage so. She did not answer the telephone calls. Her office told us that she “was not there” and they did not know when she would be.

However, the Ministry disseminated long statement as a response to Studio Re’s accusations. See the full text of the statement:

“The statement of the head of Studio Re Mamuka Kuparadze regarding the activity of the Ministry is one more confirmation that Studio RE covers news in a biased way and conducts a campaign of slander regarding the activity of the Ministry. A clear confirmation of this is that they changed the comment of the Ministry regarding the cooperation and according to their statement we refuse to cooperate because of critics which is not true and is one more example of changing our comment. Ministry hears critics and differing opinion and discusses it, but slander and negative campaigning is unacceptable.

Eka Gulua: “We are ready for cooperation. We welcome communication with everybody, but when you spread wrong, biased and unobjective information, we cannot cooperate with you.” According to her, she refused to cooperate with Studio Re because of slandering information they spread.

According to Valeri Kopaleishvili, he would participate in the program only if things were covered objectively and no misinformation took place.

According to the statement of Studio Re, the viewer will suffer by incomprehensive information which we fully agree with and it is really sad as the viewer has right to receive real information and not disfigured one. It is sad that the grants allotted by the EU for dissemination of information and informing public, in reality are used for misinformation, conducting slander campaign, confusing citizens and misleading them.

Of course it is a right of Studio Re to hush up the activity and indisputable successes of the Ministry, but real improvement of the problems of IDPs who have been forgotten for 17 years is a result of the input of the state and donor countries and the public should be informed on all this.”

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