Government Discriminates Employees Because of Their Cooperation with Journalists

Human Rights Center blames the heads of the Kakheti Regional Municipality for discrimination of citizens who cooperate with independent journalists.

The monitoring, carried out in the Kakheti region by the organization, exposed that employees of the public offices were prohibited to cooperate with those media sources which criticize the governmental activities. The employees are severely punished for giving an interview or making a comment on the situation.
One similar incident took place today. Representatives of the examination-test commission of the Gurjaani Municipality stated to Tinatin Zardiashvili, an applicant for the vacancy in the administrative board, they could not accept her at work because she had commented on the fact happened in the Municipality with the journalists little time ago. The Prosecutor’s Office is carrying out an investigation on the fact at the moment.

The Human Rights Center is deeply concerned regarding the situation and calls upon corresponding bodies, media and non-governmental organizations to react on the situation. The center states that high-ranking officials hinder the investigation through suppressing their employees. Subsequently, we demand the Prosecutor’s Office to use the penalties envisaged under the law.

Human Rights Center will publish the results of the monitoring in the nearest future.

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti