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Studio Monitor Burglarized

July 24, 2012
Unidentified people burglarized the studio belonging to television production company Studio Monitor late at night, on July 21.

“They have taken video cameras, new editing equipment, computers, as well as six notebooks. They only left the external hard drive,” Giorgi Mgeladze, journalist at Studio Monitor said to Media.Ge.

According to Giorgi Mgeladze, the last employee left the office at 9:00p.m on July 21. Nino Zuriashvili, Studio Monitor’s director arrived at the office and saw that it had been broken into at noon on July 22. The lock on the entrance door was broken.

According to Mgeladze the studio moved to another office, in a residential block on Shevchenko str.#5, which is 100 meters away from the Parliament building. ”Now we only have left the laptops which we had taken home over the weekend to work”, -Mgeladze said.

Studio Monitor is known for its investigatory films. Its journalists report on stories about corrupt officials, pressure on businesses, human rights abuses and other cases of law breaking. Studio Monitor’s films are broadcasted on the television channel Maestro as well as online.

The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics calls on the government to launch a timely and effective investigation into the burglary. The Charter’s statement, released on July 23, calls the burglary at Studio Monitor “a big blow to independent media.”

“It is sad when a studio built up over the years is damaged in one day and journalists investigating various cases are left without equipment.

The Charter of Journalistic Ethics calls on investigatory entities to do their utmost to identify and hold accountable the perpetrators in order to support a safe and independent work environment for journalists”,- The Charter of Journalistic Ethics states.

                                                                                                                                                       Media.ge

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