On March 20, a telephone conversation took place between Azerbaijan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jeyhun Bayramov, and Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister, Baxtiyor Saidov, AzerNEWS reports.
Day: March 20, 2026
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, said in a newly published report that China has been “gradually strengthening” its influence on Georgia’s information space, warning of what it described as a “subtle and widespread influence operation” that, in Georgia’s already “weakened media landscape,” contributes to the circulation of “authoritarian narratives” and the undermining of media pluralism.
According to the report, titled “China’s Creeping Influence on Georgia’s Information Space,” Chinese authorities, “instead of opening a state media outlet in the country, […] rely on local intermediaries – particularly outlets that are pro-Kremlin and favor the Georgian government – to promote their narratives.”
The report singled out several outlets and programs, including Obiektivi TV, aligned with the nativist and pro-Russian Alliance of Patriots party, noting that it airs a Chinese-funded, 50-minute program “devoted to China’s achievements.” Citing data from the Communications Commission, the Georgian state media regulator, RSF said the Chinese Embassy in Georgia funds the program, raising concerns over “apparent breaches” of Georgia’s Law on Broadcasting, which restricts foreign funding. It added that “the Georgian authorities have not taken any measures” in response, even as investigations have been opened against other outlets widely seen as independent under similar claims.
Another outlet highlighted in the report is Georgia First News, a Georgian-language online platform linked to Vato Shakarashvili, a leader of a recently established United Neutral Georgia, anti-EU and anti-NATO party, which promotes Georgia’s “neutrality” and is widely seen as aligned with the ruling Georgian Dream party. The outlet is among those that republish content from Global Times, an English-language daily that RSF says is editorially aligned with the Communist Party of China.
Georgia First News also represents a “good example” of how Chinese and Russian narratives “overlap and mutually reinforce one another” in an information ecosystem, the report notes, citing a comment from Salome Giunashvili of the Media Development Foundation, a local media watchdog.
The report further said that Chinese narratives that criticize the USA’s international aid and accuse organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) of seeking to “destabilise foreign states” resonate with certain local political narratives that portray China as an “alternative partner to Western actors.” It cited, among others, Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who once described China as “the only peaceful superpower in global politics.”
RSF reiterated that more than 600 violations targeting journalists and media outlets were recorded between October 2024 and November 2025 in Georgia, adding that “amid political pressure, restrictive legislation and funding difficulties, many independent media outlets are struggling to survive,” making Georgia’s information space “particularly fertile ground for foreign influence to take hold.”
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