Xenophobic and Discriminative Statements Are Frequently Encountered in Printed Media

Gela Mtivlishvili

Media Development Foundation published monitoring results of the survey which aimed to estimate how issues of ethnic and religious minorities are covered in Georgian media. Based on the survey, the foundation concluded that in comparison with the broadcasting media, xenophobic and discriminative statements are more frequently encountered in printed media where people express personal negative opinions, assessments and attitudes.

The survey covers period from December 29, 2009 till January 15, 2010. Head of Media Development Foundation Tamar Khorbaladze stated that the monitoring was both quantitative and qualitative.

“Aim of the quantitative monitoring was to find out how actively topic of religious and ethnic minorities is highlighted in Georgian media. Qualitative monitoring aimed to expose facts of violation of international standards while covering the issues of minorities. More precisely, it had to discover the cases of discrimination and stereotypes,” said Khorbaladze.

Media-monitoring focused on news programs of TV-Companies “Public Broadcasting”, “Rustavi 2”, “Imedi”, “Maestro” and “Kavkasia”; as well as newspapers “24 Hours”, “Resonance,” “New Generation”, “Alia”, “Asaval-Dasavali”, “Kviris Palistra”, “Georgian Times.” Regional printed media: “PS”, “New Newspaper,” (Kutaisi), “South Gate” (Akhaltsikhe), “Kakheti Voice” (Kakheti), “Free Word” (Kartli), “Batumelebi” (Adjara), “Ghia Boklomi” (Samegrelo), “Guria News” (Guria).

According to the Foundation, within the monitoring period only 5 newspapers covered the topic of minorities. Among them, only one of them was positive letter and rest 4 were negative. “For example, if within the monitoring period only one violation was discovered in broadcasting media, 4 facts were discovered in printed media,” stated the report.

Tamar Khorbaladze clarified that in order to make the monitoring more effective the foundation decided to provide journalists with the results of the survey and examples of typical cases during the monitoring.

There are several cases discussed in the foundation report.

On January 5, 2010 TV Company “Rustavi 2” released a TV-item in 9:00 pm news program “Kurieri” which was about the murder committed by Hamlet Gajiev on the ground of jealousy; he stabbed his relative, father of his son-in-law Kakha Makharoblishvili in his own house. Journalist interviewed the neighbor who said: “They were fond of each other; they were very good and nice people. By the way, they were Azeri people, but we had such a nice relationship with them. They are perfect people.”

Tamar Khorbaladze: “At the first sight, the abovementioned accident was reported neutrally. The journalist did not underline the ethnicity of the murderer. However, he used the comment of the neighbor which is discriminative and differentiates the murderer on ethnic ground by speaking negatively about Azeri people in general. This part of the neighbor’s comment was not topic of public interest and media-outlet could omit the insulting statement; or in the case of showing it, journalists could say that ethnic Azeri citizens of Georgia find similar statements insulting.”

Media Development Foundation brings examples of xenophobic statements about Armenian people.

“On January 14, 2010 newspaper “New Generation” described an incident in its article “Crime Prevented by Clergymen”. “Crime was committed in the area of church in the village of Tsurghurgasheni in Bolnisi district where the clergyman and other servants of the church were collecting the hay. At that time, drunken brothers Zh. Kh and R. Kh approached them by car and demanded to leave the territory of the church because both the church and the area belonged to Armenian people. Unless clergymen obeyed their demand, the brothers would compel them to leave the area under force. Furthermore, the request of the clergymen to calm down made the harassers more aggressive and tried to realize their threat immediately. One of them, R. Kh took an iron screw-rut from the car-booth and started to curse the clergymen”… 20 minutes later, they returned back to the place. He started to shoot from the hunter’s gun which he had taken from the village of Bolnisi. Father Serapime and other servants sheltered the building which was standing nearby.”

Representatives of the Foundation think that xenophobic signs are viewed in this article. “The author of the article does not mention names and ethnic origin but it is evident that s/he speaks about Armenian citizens of Georgia who are mentioned as criminals. Thus, the author shows his/her personal attitude towards the fact and does not deliver the position of the second party of the conflict. The article does not mention source of information, and it is not checked with independent source. Ethnic Armenian citizens of Georgia are main characters of this article and journalist is a party in it who evaluates the incident,” stated the report of the Foundation.

Head of the Foundation clarifies that concrete examples of the report does not aim to criticize concrete media-outlets, but it aims to identify concrete facts of violations and stereotype expressions as well as prevention of similar incidents in future.