The Partner Organisations of the Council of Europe’s Platform for the Safety of Journalists and the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) have completed their visit to Tbilisi to assess the local media environment, including in the context of the upcoming elections. According to the mission, the situation in the country has “clearly regressed” in terms of media freedom and democracy. During a two-day mission on October 1 and 2, the organizations met with media, political parties, and representatives of civil society organizations.
“Our monitoring has shown that there is a clear regress in media freedom and democracy in your country,” said Jemimah Steinfeld of Index on Censorship during the October 2 briefing, noting that the Foreign Agents Law passed by Georgian Dream this year threatens independent media. In this context, Steinfeld also mentioned the recently passed anti-LGBT Law on Family Values and Protection of Minors, which, she argued, “will restrict journalists from covering certain issues in many ways.”
“By implementing these laws, we see a real threat of overt media censorship by the ruling Georgian Dream party,” Steinfeld said. Other challenges she cited included the polarization of the media, the lack of pre-election debates, and problems with the physical safety of journalists.
“All the organizations and their representatives sitting around this table are shocked by the facts that have recently taken place in your country,” Ricardo Gutiérrez, secretary general of the European Federation of Journalists, told the media, referring to “a whole list of anti-democratic actions” according to the mission’s findings. According to Gutiérrez, he was appalled not only by the deterioration of media freedom in Georgia but also by “the violation of the rights of journalists as individuals, as citizens of this country.”
“Civil society organizations and journalists have been repeatedly attacked, most likely at the direction of the government. Unfortunately, these criminal acts have a systematic character and are not isolated cases,” Gutiérrez noted. “Such developments dramatically worsen the state of democracy in the country.”
The mission was composed of organizations working on media rights, including Article 19, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), European Broadcasting Union (EBU), European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), European Federation of Journalists, Index on Censorship, International Press Institute (IPI), Justice for Journalists Foundation (JFJ), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Note: The briefing remarks have been double-translated from the Georgian translation in the Euronews report.
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