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Journalists Are "Voluntary Trafficked Victims"

January 23, 2008

“In Georgia, rights of journalists are violated,” journalists and lawyers claim. Journalists have had to work for publishing houses without labor contracts or any other legal documents for many years.  Consequently, employer often treats journalists deliberately.

Irakli Petriashvili, chairperson of the Georgian Trade Union announced his initiative to establish a Trade Union for Journalists which will protect the rights of journalists.

“The Trade Union will guarantee the independence of journalists; the union will react on all complaints the society will have about journalists; the institution will establish the solidarity in the media,” stated Petriashvili.

Nino Loladze, a journalist appreciates the initiative of Irakli Petriashvili who added that in the past she also wanted to establish an organization which would protect the rights of the journalists. It is very important because the rights of journalists are evidently violated more than of any other professional occupations.

“Journalists, who defend human rights, cannot protect their own rights from their employers. There are not labor contracts signed between the, and the journalists cannot demand the employer to draw up any kind of contract which could protect them. Everybody keeps silence. When there is no labor contract, journalists are deceived by publishers. They cannot get their salaries and honoraries either. However, journalists cannot prove it. There is no sense to appeal to the court because they cannot provide legal documents on their occupations.”

Nino Loladze states that journalists are trafficked in Georgia. “Today, we are victims of trafficking in Georgia. That is kind of getting voluntary victims of trafficking.”

Journalist Eliso Chapidze thinks that there is no legal necessity to establish Trade Union of Journalists in the country. However, it is appreciable if journalists will be able to protect their rights. She thinks that the problem is about Labor Code which regulates the relationship between employer and employee. Based on the Code an employee can be sacked without any explanations. A person is not protected from employer. Thus, establishment of the Trade Union would be better.”

Journalist Tea Topuria has been working for the printed media for ten years already. She had to change jobs very often and she permanently suffered from her rights violated.

“A journalist always feels unprotected from his/her employer and had to claim his/her rights. Very often journalists could not get their salaries or receive them later. Once, the whole staff of the publishing house was announced that salaries would be distributed 1-2 months later. If we did not like the situation, we could leave the job immediately and the publishing house could find a new journalist within two hours. Publishers always speak in categorical tone with journalists and the reason is simple: no contract was signed between them that could protect the journalist; they had made only oral agreement.”

“When we sued one of the publishers at the court it was difficult to prove that we really worked for that newspaper; some of them could not prove that s/he was the author of articles published in that edition because they used pennames while writing. The Trade Union will make an employer to sign contracts; the Union would have a representative to the editorial-offices to observe the on-going situation there. If at least half of the staff will join the Trade Union it would be a serious power against injustice. There were cases when the whole editorial staff went on strike; but nobody supported us at that time.”

Tea Topuria applied to the lawyers together with other journalists regarding the problem. The lawyers advised to set up an institution which would protect the rights of journalists. With the support of these institutions it would be easier to influence publishers.

Lia Mukhashavria, the head of the NGO “Constitution Article 42”, often meets journalists who apply to her for help. So she has information about the relationship between publishers and journalists.

“I think it is necessary to protect labor rights of journalists in order to support their independence and professionalism. It can be achieved through establishing a Trade Union.”

“The Trade Union has large authority. First of all it can demand the employer to draw up labor contracts with its employees; the administration should sign a contract where principal issues would be agreed; such as duration of working hours, vacations, reimbursement of sick-leave, maternity-leave and many other details that should be preliminarily settled with the employer. If this problem is resolved and a journalist is not threatened with reduction all the time, it will be natural to speak about the independent activities of the professional staff.”

“I wish journalists were independent and could carry out their activities accurately and properly. Journalist must be protected by contract conditions. In this case an employer will not be able to harass the journalist. I suggested it to journalists 3-4 years ago. I always promised them my assistance if they decided to establish a Trade Union. We needed one hundred founders and I could draw up all legal documents that would be necessary for the registration of the union. I also promised them my assistance on the first stage of their activities.”

Tea Topuria thinks the structure of the Trade Union is very important too; the head of the Trade Union should be an enthusiastic person who would be ready to do hard work.

“If the Trade Union is not set up by the real journalist team, or by those journalists who have coped with many problems, the government might also establish the Union. In similar situation international organizations and donors will not support the new Trade Union because we already have one Trade Union in the country. Journalists cannot keep the union with their funds.”

Nona Suvariani, Tbilisi 

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