Head of Shida Kartli Police Department Threatened Regional Journalists with Imprisonment

Press service department of Shida Kartli regional administration has replied to information provided by the Human Rights Center titled: “Journalists Are Not Allowed Into the Regional Administration according to Shida Kartli Regional Governor’s Orders.”

According to the press-service department, after the August war, measures have been taken to strengthen and protect strategic institutions. Consequently, ordinary citizens are not allowed into the building of the regional administration unless they have special permits. Nevertheless, according to the decision of the local authorities, journalists are not issued permits at the special bureau. Since the members of the association of regional journalists did not introduce themselves to the guard, the guard took it upon himself to demand that they needed permits in order to enter. Journalist Gela Mtivlishvili protested the request and it became a reason for the controversy between state security personnel and the un-welcomed visiting journalists.

Security personnel even claim that the journalists entered the building while shouting provocative remarks and wanted to enter without permits. Press-service department of the regional administration states that Mivlishvili lied in his statement that journalists are not allowed into the building without permits.

“When it was understood that Mtivlishvili and the accompanying women were journalists and wanted to see Davit Khmiadashvili, Gori district governor, the press-service department arranged their meeting immediately and Khmiadashvili replied to all their questions.”

On the previous day, the regional governor did not refuse the representatives of the association of regional journalists to meet with him. On November 13, a delegation of Lithuanian businesspersons was visiting Shida Kartli region. Consequently, we offered them to meet the regional governor at 11:00 AM instead of 3:30 PM. Mtivlishvili thanked us and then refused; he said they wanted to study the problems of IDPs and will visit villages in order to explore and examine the situation on the ground,” stated the press-service.

Lado Vardzelashvili, Shida Kartli governor: “It is a pity that journalists arrived in our region to stage provocations and not to implement their professional activities. I can make such a statement because of their incident with our security guard and then the accusation made by one of the journalists that I prevented them from being allowed into the building. The principle of our work is publicity and transparency. I never avoid interviews with journalists. Mtivlishvili personally refused to meet me on the previous day and then he started to blame me that the local authorities had ordered not to allow him into the building.

“The delegation of businessmen was visiting us that day and I was not in the building or even in the town at that moment.”

Mtivlishvili reported to Vladimer Jugheli, the head of Shida Kartli Police Department, about his incident with security personnel and requested to react to the incident. Law enforcers arrived at the scene several minutes later and brought the journalists to the Gori police station after their meeting with district governor; journalists had to write explanation letters. However, Mtivlishvili expressed his mistrust with the police, which he personally called, refused to write an explanation letter and left the police station.

Despite such negligence, the police launched a case regarding the incident and started a investigation.

Reply of Regional Journalists to the Statement of the Press-Center Department of the Regional Administration

The statement of the press-service department of the Shida Kartli regional administration states that “members of the association of regional administration did not introduce themselves to the guard and consequently, the security guard demanded that they needed permits.” This statement is false. After armed officers of the security police refused to allow us into the building, we explained to them that we were journalists from various regions of Georgia and wanted to meet the district governor regarding the situation of IDPs, and this was because Lado Vardzelashvili was busy and was unable to arrange a meeting. In addition, we inquired why they were demanding that we need permits to enter the building. The security guard started to scold us, and stated that the regional administration had ordered him to get rid of journalists.”

Newspaper “Alia” published an article about the incident in its November 15 issue where Vladimer Jugheli, the head of the Gori police department, stated: “The journalist was very impolite with us. He threw a pen at the investigator woman and insulted her. Evidently he wanted to provoke us. In any case, when he saw that we intended to launch a case, he threw a pen at the investigator and ran away.”

Correspondent of the newspaper asked Jugheli: “Can you launch a criminal case against the journalist on the ground of such incident?” He replied: “We do not need to exaggerate the situation.”

These comments of Jugheli demonstrate that law enforcers did not want to investigate the incident impartially. This became evident to us as soon as we arrived at the police station. “You do not have injuries and we cannot understand what you are complaining about,” asked several police officers at the station. The journalists left the police station in protest of such cynical treatment.

Evidently, Vladimer Jugheli has been busy making up false cases in order to oppress the journalists. Based on his comments he blamed us for hooliganism, which is a chargeable offense under the criminal code. Regional journalists called Vova Jugheli regarding the incident and asked why he was spreading false information about us. In reply to my question, Jugheli threatened us with detention if we arrive in Shida Kartli a second time.”

Human Rights Center