Urgent Appeal of the Regional Information Centers to the President

Information centers of Kakheti (www.ick.ge), Adjara, Samegrelo, Zemo Svaneti (www.tspress.ge), Shida Kartli (www.qartli.ge), Mtskheta-Mtianeti (www.icmm.ge) released urgent appeal to the President of Georgia:

Mr. President, during your recent visits in the regions of Georgia, personnel of your press-center and security service violated our rights and interfered in our professional activities. Namely:

On September 2, 2011 during your visit in Gremi village of Kvareli district, your security service officers arrested the journalist of the Information Center of Kakheti [ICK] Natia Danelishvili and her freedom was restricted during 40 minutes.

On March 12, 2012, ICK was not allowed to properly footage your visit in Telavi. Representative of the President’s Administration Natia Bandzeladze said TV-Company Rustavi 2 was live broadcasting the presentation of the Telavi Rehabilitation Project.

On April 24, 2012 according to the instructions of Natia Bandzeladze, the security service officers did not allow the ICK correspondents to enter the territory of the recently constructed Gurjaani hospital. “You can watch it on TV. What did you cover when we allowed you to footage the event? Why do you want to enter the hospital yard; you are not recording anything but people there. Have you ever recorded the new hospital, the new equipment? You never cover the events positively,” Natia Bandeladze told the head of the ICK on the phone.  We believe it was interference in the editorial activities of the independent media organization.

On May 3, the World Press Freedom Day, the President’s security service officers seized a camera and bag from journalist Iza Salakia of http://www.tspress.ge/, information center of Adjara, Samegrelo and Zemo Svaneti. The security officers dragged the journalists out of the recently-constructed hospital. Later, the officers left the camera and personal items of the journalist in the yard. The memory car of the video-camera is lost. Nobody has responded to this fact. The editorial board of the tspress.ge has been unsuccessfully requesting return of the memory card together with the recorded materials on it.

On May 6, 2012 the President’s security service officers broke into the office of the Information Center of Shida Kartli and demanded journalists to stop recoding of the Police Parade. The police had already raided the office of the http://www.qartli.ge/ as well as neighboring flats due to security purposes.

Under the Georgian law, regional news agencies can enjoy the same right to receive and disseminate the information like national TV-Companies Rustavi 2, Imedi and Public Broadcasting. Thus, the activities of the press-center of the President’s administration and security service officers were interference in journalistic activities and we request your adequate respond to these facts.

Information Center of Kakheti – www.ick.ge – Gela Mtivlishvili
Information Center of Adjara, Samegrelo, Zemo Svaneti – www.tspress.ge – Eliso Janashia
Information Center of Shida Kartli – www.qartli.ge – Saba Tsitsikashvili
Information Center of Mtskheta-Mtianeti – www.icmm.ge – Manana Vardashvili