How Print Media Is Restricted in the Regions

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

The situation regarding the freedom of media and providing the society with impartial information in the regions of Georgia is extremely difficult. Ia Mamaladze, chairperson of the Association of the Regional Media, stated that the regional media is close to disappearing.  The regional newspaper “Imedi” in Kakheti still is closed. Student’s newspapers were closed in Batumi. The independent newspaper “Tavisupali Sitkva” (free word) was not published in Poti for four months.

Officially independent media, both electronic and print, for many years have been funded by donors or by the district budgets. The degree of independence of the media is directly connected to the funding. Only the government has access to state budgets and it funds a media organization if the organization serves the interests of the authority. Media funded by international funds should speak only the truth. However, close relatives of the owners of media or the founders themselves and former publishers have moved to the government and public agencies. Consequently, the news prepared by their former newspapers does not differ from the information released by the TV Companies funded from the central budget. This tendency is most vivid in Kakheti. Leila Murakashvili, editor-in-chief and the founder of the newspaper “Progress” was appointed as the head of the District Social Agency; Maia Kalibegashvili, publisher and editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Spektri” is spokesperson of the Kakheti region governor. Wife of the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Kakhetis Khma” is the chairperson of the Gurjaani municipality board.  After these changes the newspapers receive the large number of advertisements that is necessary for the funding of independent newspapers. For example, the newspaper “Spektri” has 8 pages and four advertisements of the municipality boards were in its July 16 edition.

Ia Mamaladze, head of Association of the Regional Media: “In the past, we did not have enough professionals or equipment in the regions. Today the regional media faces the problem of existence. It has been a long time since journalists have been abused, but now there are new and better methods used against them. Mostly there are two methods: journalists and publishers are attracted to work in the district administrations and municipality boards. The journalists accept the proposals because of their low salaries as journalists. You cannot demand that these people be heroes and put themselves and their families in danger. The government managed to see that even distant relatives of opponent journalists are unemployed forever.

3 or4 people are employed as a spokesperson at the district administrations and municipality boards although even one person is not necessary for that position. For example, all of the qualified journalists are attracted to governmental agencies in Ozurgeti, in western Georgia. They are spokespersons of museums, theatres, etc. In Sighnaghi the media was well developed even during the soviet regime. Now, there is not a single newspaper published in the district. However, there is an office for public relations which has one director and two specialists. A city without any newspapers does not need a press service office.”

“Another form of oppression is oppression of the employees of public agencies that are funded from the budget. They are forbidden to subscribe to of order advertisements in opposition newspapers. For example, a meeting was held in the Healthcare Department of the Guria Region in western Georgia and the employees were warned that they would face some problems if they subscribe to “Guria News”. They were forbidden to receive the newspaper at home. The regional newspapers started working in hiding; people are reading the newspapers like proclamations.”

“I do not hope that the government will create normal conditions for journalists that will guarantee proper work. Recent legislative changes convinced us that we will have to work in more difficult conditions. In the past we were sent to prison for 30 days for professional activities, now they will imprison us for 3 months,” said Ia Mamaladze.

Short time ago, a strange thing happened in Poti where supposedly, one person Badri Shedania, director of the Poti hospital purchased the entire edition of the newspaper “Tavisufali Sitkva” (Free Word). Next week the newspaper described the incident in detail and copied the article of the previous edition word forward which told the story of a beating of Badri Shedania in the restaurant “Kviprosi”. The author of the article, Eliso Janashia, said Badri Shedania, the de-facto representative of Akhaliaias (high ranking law enforcement official) in Poti, was drunk and behaved badly and a guard beat him. The journalist supposed that Shedania tried to hide the incident from Akhalaias when he bought the entire edition of the newspaper.

Eliso Janashia, editor of the newspaper “Tavisufali Sitkva”: “Journalistic activity is much more difficult in the region than in the capital. The government uses many well designed and innovative methods against the independent media. The most acceptable method are: denial of interviews interview; artificial restriction of access to public information; winning journalists over; inhibiting companies and organizations from subscribing to independent newspapers and from ordering advertisements in disobedient news sources. Based on this situation we could not publish the newspaper for four months because of financial and other problems. At the moment, we renewed publishing with the financial support of an international organization. However the problems still remain and we do not see any indication of improvement.”

Saba Tsitsikashvili, editor of the Shida Kartli regional newspaper “Kartlis Khma”: “Certain people get irritated at hearing the information about the abuse of the same journalist. However, this is not the essential problem. Mostly, I am concerned about the passivity of the civil society in Gori. They have no reaction to the abuse of journalists. On December 30, 2008 Public Defender Sozar Subari said in his interview with one newspaper that I—Saba Tsitsikasvili--had to flee from Gori and Georgia but when I returned nobody said what had happened; why I had left Georgia and what danger I had avoided. Before my departure, the people close to the local authority directly told me my relatives would have problems and I would be brutally tortured. I left Georgia for the safety of my relatives and not mine. I made a similar decision after meeting with the human rights defenders of the member states of the Council of Europe. At the moment I still work in Gori and the worst is that local government uses journalists close to them to fight against the opponent journalists.”

In June 2009 the independent newspaper “Imedi” ceased publishing in the Kakheti region.

“Regional media is much oppressed. The Kakheti regional administration directly ordered private companies and other people not to place advertisements in the newspaper “Imedi”. The number of subscribers decreased this year but despite financial problems the newspaper managed to work. Finally, the editor and journalists of the newspaper were persecuted more. The regional administration got irritated at the critical articles about their activities that were published in the newspaper,” said Natalia Sarkisashvili, publishing editor of the newspaper “Imedi”.

 “Imedi” had been published in Kakheti since 2003 and journalists of the newspaper often were persecuted. Hand grenades were exploded in the house of the editor two times. Then his assassination was attempted. Later he was attacked and beaten. Criminal cases were initiated on every incident but none of   investigation has been completed.

Student newspapers were closed in Batumi. The student government of Batumi State University funded the newspapers but they were closed because the funding was stopped. Media expert Ia Antadze stated that although the youth media editions were good practice for future journalists, their closure did not attract much attention, only one small detail. “On July 20 2008 we informed the audience of the Radio Liberty, while discussing the regional media, about the students’ newspaper “StudNews” in Batumi where young people could express openly their opinions about good or bad sides of the university. We reported that the editor of the newspaper, Tariel Tsetskhaldze, was called to the press center of the university where he was warned against losing his student status if he continued like that. Then we promised the audience to observe the situation about the youth newspaper. Unfortunately, after the conversation in the press center no more editions of the newspaper were published,” said Ia Antadze.

International organizations are informed about the media situation in Georgia. For example, according to the report of one of the most prominent organization “Freedom House”, in comparison to last years the level of democracy has greatly fallen in Middle Asia, Central and Eastern Europe including Georgia. According to the document Georgia is among those 18 countries where the democracy situation worsened. Furthermore, the democracy index of Georgia after 2003 has fallen to the lowest level and democracy has worsened almost in every respect including in the respect of the independence of the media.