Two journalists from the two opposition-leaning media outlets have been temporarily banned from working in the legislative building. In both cases, Nino Tsilosani, the ruling Georgian Dream party MP and the Deputy Speaker, requested that the journalists’ accreditation be suspended. The matter included her being approached by the journalists as she refused to answer their questions.
On June 4, Sopho Gozalishvili, a journalist with the opposition-leaning Formula TV, was banned from working in parliament for six months, from June 4 to December 4. “Despite [the MP’s] refusal, the journalist continued her attempt to record the interview,” reads the Parliament’s comment to Formula TV.
A day earlier, on June 3, a similar incident occurred when another journalist, Nini Balanchivadze of another opposition-leaning Mtavari TV, was barred from working in the legislative building for one month, again at the request of GD MP Nino Tsilosani. The video footage shows that when pressed by the Mtavari TV journalist to comment on the expected U.S. sanctions, Nino Tsilosani, one of the 84 MPs who voted in favor of the foreign agents law, refused to answer, and threatened the journalist: “I will make a motion that you be sanctioned.”
According to a controversial February 2023 order of the Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on the rules of accreditation and conduct of the media in the legislative building, journalists should stop an interview if an MP, staff member, or guest objects.
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