Day: September 14, 2023
Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council Armen Grigoryan received Louis Bono, the Senior Adviser on Caucasian Negotiations, the American Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.
The interlocutors discussed the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, the humanitarian crisis and efforts to overcome it, as well as issues related to the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
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The Daily Beat: 13 September
The UK introduced a transit visa requirement for the nationals of Georgia and Russia. Given the serious concerns about an increase in the number of asylum seekers from Georgia and Russia, the British Parliament almost immediately approved the amendments to the Immigration Order, preventing their further influx into the country. Since 2018, Georgian and Russian nationals have consistently been among the top nationalities exploiting the UK’s transit provisions to claim asylum.
Speaking on the sidelines of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of Unions address in Strasbourg, EU enlargement commissioner Olivér Várhelyi talked about Georgia’s prospects for EU candidacy, reminding the government of unfulfilled commitments and urging for prompt action. “Now, every minute counts because we want to come with the reports already in October. So, I do hope Georgia will be there,” said Commissioner Várhelyi.
The Georgian Parliament rejected to consider a petition signed by 6,084 citizens demanding a ban on direct flights between Russia and Georgia and introducing a visa regime for Russian citizens. The Parliament’s Sectoral Committee on Economy and Economic Policy discussed the issue only procedurally, not going into the details of the petition. “The state’s position is that it will not impose sanctions on Russia because these are aimed first and foremost at damaging our country’s economy and will affect our citizens…,” said the Committee’s Chairman, Davit Songhulashvili.
Opposition TV station “Mtavari Arkhi” aired the report on the alleged refusal by the GD government of the US proposal to set up a US military base in Georgia, accusing the authorities of declining the offer, thus betraying the country’s security interests. Later in the day, the US embassy in Tbilisi rejected the rumors of possibly setting up a US military base in Georgia. Georgian Dream chairman Irakli Kobakhidze, who was also asked to comment on this matter, told journalists that no military base can guarantee security, adding that only NATO membership can provide a reliable security umbrella for the country.
Ruling Georgian Dream party chairman Irakli Kobakhidze wholeheartedly supported alleged pressure on an English-language online media outlet, OC Media, by the parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili. “Shalva Papuashvili did very well. When censorship is the case in a particular media outlet, donors should be aware of it. Therefore, it is very good that he informed donors about censorship,” said Irakli Kobakhidze. An English-language online media outlet, OC Media, claimed that Speaker Papuashvili, directly addressed one of the institutional donors of OC Media in a bid to pressure the outlet for declining to publish his op-ed piece.
Gurjaani District Court acquitted the persons arrested for protesting against the visit of the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov’s daughter and his other relatives in Georgia, refusing the prosecutor’s request to impose fines. The judge verbally reprimanded three of the 14 people arrested on May 20 near Lake Kvareli and acquitted the remaining 11.
Tbilisi City Court found the former chief of Georgia’s Military Police Department, Megis Kardava, guilty of embezzling GEL 60,000 belonging to the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. Following a trial, the court sentenced Megis Kardava to 8 years’ imprisonment. However, applying the Amnesty Law reduced the sentence to 4 years imprisonment and a 6-month ban on holding public office or employment. Megis Kardava has been wanted by the Georgian authorities since 2013 on multiple charges in eleven criminal cases. He was detained in Ukraine in 2017 and extradited from Kyiv in 2021.
The Monetary Policy Committee of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) reduced the key refinancing rate by 0.25%, setting it to 10%. The NBG cited a downward inflation trajectory as the reason for the reduction. According to the NBG, annual inflation in Georgia was at 0.9% in August, and external factors, including lower prices of food and raw materials, influenced lower inflation.
On September 14, during its 68th session, the European Union Integration Commission of Georgia, led by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, approved the newly drafted De-Oligarchization Action Plan. This plan was formulated based on recommendations from the Venice Commission and the European Union.
According to a press release from the Prime Minister’s Office, “the document contains a comprehensive set of changes to be implemented in Georgian legislation.” The plan “adopts a systematic approach and sets specific deadlines for the adoption of relevant legislative amendments.” According to the PM’s Office the document covers seven different areas, including anti-corruption and anti-monopoly measures, money laundering, media pluralism and judicial reform.
The press release goes on to say that following the adoption of the plan, the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been advised to engage in further consultations with European partners. Once the government formally adopts the document, responsibility for its implementation will pass to the Georgian Parliament.
Notably, the fact of the elaboration of the new draft law on de-oligarchization came to light after the meeting between EUHR Josep Borrell and MPs of the Georgian Parliament on September 8. The draft law was drafted after the Venice Commission recommended Georgia to shelve the previously proposed draft law on de-oligarchization in June 2023, citing the potential for political abuse and arbitrary application. The old law was drafted in response to the European Commission’s recommendation on de-oligarchization and had transposed Ukraine’s de-oligarchization law to Georgia, albeit with some changes like giving the Government the ability to compile the list of oligarchs instead of the President.
The non-governmental organization “Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics” has issued a statement in response to OC Media‘s article, which said that the Speaker of Parliament wrote a complaint letter to their donor following their decision not to publish his Op-ed. The organization is calling upon the ruling party to cease the persecution of independent and impartial media outlets and instead, advocate for the protection and advancement of free media.
According to the Charter, this incident is further evidence of the government’s attempts to undermine press freedom. The Charter Council stresses that media outlets have the inherent right to refuse to publish certain content that violates their established standards and editorial guidelines. They further stress that the editors of OC Media were forced to make the decision based only on the title and first paragraph, and note that they were under no obligation to grant permission for publication without first reviewing the whole material.
Response of the Speaker of the Parliament
In a continuation to the episode, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili published a lengthy response to the OC Media article regarding the incident. He called the OC Media article “an illustrative case of why and how the self-styled ‘critical media’ in Georgia discredits itself beyond repair, losing trust of the public and ending up mostly speaking to each other or their own closed bubble”.
According to Papuashvili, after OC Media published the aforementioned article, Papuashvili sent a response letter to the editor and they mutually agreed that it would be published separately on their media platform, but the editors included the letter as part of an article, which, in Papuashvili’s words: “broke not only a simple rule of journalistic integrity, refusing to publish a response to their piece, but also violated the trust that should exist in normal human to human relations, which is unprecedented even for the polarized Georgian media”[OC has since apologized for the misunderstanding and updated their article accordingly].
Papuashvili, in his response letter, wrote that even though this is an “insignificant case with a less than important news outlet,” he is bringing these details to light because media freedom is “very important to the Georgian Dream government.”
In his letter the Parliament’s Speaker emphasized the importance of media freedom in Georgia and the Georgian Dream party’s role in fostering a diverse and free media environment over the last decade. He noted that OC Media “benefits from Georgia’s vibrant media landscape, distinct from the “controlled media environments of the past”.
Shalva Papuashvili stated that “commitment to the diversity and freedom of opinion” was the reason he was inspired to write the Op-Ed in the first place. He notes that his pieces are offered to many media outlets, and his “goodwill gesture” of offering them to OC Media, which “occupies an infinitesimally small space in Georgian media and is virtually unknown to the public,” was to develop cooperation with them, even though their “blunt and near-automatic critical reaction to any of Georgian government’s decisions and policies has long been apparent”.
In addition, Papuashvili stresses that the refusal to publish the OP-Ed proves OC Media‘s “intolerance of the alternative opinion”. He found the reasoning behind the refusal questionable, noting in particular that the editor rejected the piece because he found it contradictory to the “actions of the Georgian Dream government”. Papuashvili stated that OC Media doesn’t have the “authority of supreme judgement of what represents the ultimate truth and genuine reality” and that its decision is far from professional journalism, “especially when OC Media tries to posit itself as a guardian of integrity, justice, and inclusivity”.
Most importantly, the Speaker insisted that OC Media had “misinterpreted” his previous letter to the donor, which was only intended to “inform” the organization of OC Media‘s “questionable journalistic approach.” He notes that the media used its “typical skewed reporting” to turn the “very appropriate letter” into a clear attack on free media. He pointed out that “editorial independence should not be confused with censorship” and stated that in order for the media to best serve its readers, it should allow for “alternative points of view”.
“The rest of your article is the usual litany of unsupported accusations against the Government, copying the message boxes of Georgia’s radical opposition parties, while, at the same time, miraculously hoping to position yourselves as an unbiased media outlet. Unfortunately, this malpractice is not exclusive to your outlet but seems a universal and very regrettable trend,” – reads Papuashvili’s statement.
Concluding his statement, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament emphasized that OC Media’s “editorial independence and freedom of expression will be guaranteed and protected by the Georgian state” and wished the outlet “to aspire for better journalistic standards”.
EU Ambassador to Georgia Paweł Herczyński addressed several pertinent issues related to Georgia’s EU integration speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the conference Georgia’s Road to the European Union organized by the Parliament of Georgia and the Georgian National Platform of Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum.
Responding to a question on the 12 EU priorities, the Ambassador noted that according to the latest oral update (issued at the end of June) by the European Commission, three out of twelve EU priorities have been implemented. He added that the exact state of play will be assessed in the enlargement reports in a month’s time. He said: “Clearly, progress has been made on some priorities where we had only partial implementation, there are still several weeks left. We hope the work will intensify and as much progress as possible will be made.”
Asked which priorities were of particular importance, he said that all were equally important, but noted that HR Borrell had said during his recent visit to Tbilisi that “we would expect to see progress in particular on de-oligarchisation, with a very concrete action plan that the government should put forward, on judicial reform, on media freedom, and generally as much progress as possible on all reforms”. Paweł Herczyński stressed that the final decision rests with the current 27 EU member states, who will meet at the highest political level of presidents and prime ministers at the end of December, and that the decision will be based on unanimity.
Commenting on the State of the Union speech by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyden he said that she had set out “a very important, visionary way forward, especially for the EU itself.” He also noted that the President put focus on necessary internal reforms within the EU to be well prepared for upcoming enlargement. Herczyński said she was stating the facts when she said that Ukraine, Moldova, and several Western Balkan countries already have status and that Georgia currently has a European perspective, adding: “we hope this process will move forward speedily”.
Asked about the GD’s plan to impeach the President, the Ambassador stressed that as a foreign diplomat he felt he had to be “very careful” not to be perceived as interfering in Georgia’s internal affairs. However, he noted: “: “What we want is for Georgia to be stable, strong country with very strong institutions” adding “of course, impeachment procedure is not what is helping Georgia” to become such a state.” Paweł Herczyński also confirmed that during the recent consultations with President Zurabishvili Georgia’s European integration was the main topic of the meeting with President.
Also Read:
- 14/09/2023 – Commissioner Várhelyi: Now, Every Minute Counts
- 13/09/2023 – Update: President Consults Opposition Parties on EU Integration Process
- 08/09/2023 – EUHR Borrell Holds Meetings in Georgia
- 07/09/2023 – EUHR Borrell: Historic opportunity should not be missed
- 06/09/2023 – Update: President Tours Capitals to Promote EU Candidacy
- 01/08/2023 – Tracking Georgia’s Reforms: An Update on 12 EU Conditionalities’ Implementation