Category: freedom of expression

Police violence to referred to Europe's human rights court

March 6, 2010 by georgiamedia

The Georgian government is potentially facing a case in Europe's human rights court in Strasbourg because of its failure to take any action against the police who attacked demonstrators on 15 June last year (see film of the attack below).

On that day the police - some in plain clothes and some in masks - attacked peaceful protestors who had gathered outside the police headquarters to protest an earlier set of arrests and detentions of opposition protestors. In their initial attempt to explain away the police violence the interior ministry said that the police had attacked to clear the entrance of the headquarters and had been set upon by the protestors. Eyewitnesses say that the protestors were not blocking the road.

The interior ministry later said that they had not attacked the demonstrators because of a road bloackage but because they had identified known trouble makers in the protest.

Journalists were beaten and had their equipment seized and broken in the attack. No police have been prosecuted but five opposition activists were jailed, not for any earlier action - depite the interior ministry's claim - but for allegedly resisting the police on 15 June.

The Georgian authorities' actions were later criticised by Human Rights Watch.

The Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) are filing suit at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) alleging that the Georgian authorities breached the European Convention on Human Rights. The convention is incorporated into Georgian law and is superior to all laws except the constitution itself. It is meant to be enforced by the domestic courts but if they fail to do so then all European citizens have a right to go directly to the Strasbourg court.

GYLA (see Maestro news report below) are alleging that victims of the police attack were denied their convention rights under article three (torture or inhuman treatment), article five (personal liberty), article six (right to a fair trial), article ten (freedom of expression) and article eleven (right to peaceful assembly).

Second public channel not the answer to Georgia's media crisis

February 26, 2010 by georgiamedia

Georgia's revamped "second channel" has begun broadcasting and will offer nighly access slots to opposition political parties.

While opposition politicians generally see this as a step forward for Georgia's media, it is only a very small one.

The public television channel is already financially stretched - it has seen public funding cut in recent years and yet is expected to increase output beyond the established mainstream "first" channel with a Russian language station and now the new "second" public channel.

As can be seen production values are likely to be basic and as the slot given to the parties is "live", there is likley to be little opportunity to get beyond the basic "talking head" format.

President Saakashvili is, of course, likley to mention the channel in his speech to parliament today - quoting it as a sign of his commitment to democracy and pluralism. But when he, as he did last week in London, describes it as the "Georgian C-Span" or the equivalent of "BBC Parliament" he is also showing why it is nothing like the answer to the crisis of confidence in the Georgian media.

Both C-Span and BBC Parliament are little more than micro-channels with tiny audiences. No one in the United States or Britain is likely to cite them as proof that the countries are pluralist democracies.

Tea Tutberidze to sue Imedi

February 24, 2010 by georgiamedia

Tea Tutberidze of the Liberty Institute is threatening to sue Imedi TV over an edition of "Time of Truth" (the format will be more familiar to US viewers as "Moment of Truth") in which she features.

She says that she will go to court unless the TV station - controlled by key Saakashvili ally Giorgi Arveladze - broadcasts a new edit of the programme which, she says, is not designed to distort her real views.

Tutberidze, who became a figure of enormous controversy last year when it was revealed she was distributing videos (on her Facebook page) that insulted the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, says the programme was broadcast in a distorted and misleading way: "on the personal orders of the Patriarch and the country's leadership."

In the programme contestants are attached to a polygraph lie detector and, if they answer questions in a way that is judged truthful by the machine, they win a cash prize. Recently the programme was used as a means of smearing Tsotne Gamsakhurdia on the eve of his trial on an attempted murder charge.

Tutberidze, who was previously seen as a close ally of the government (and can be seen here on a student protest with Gigi Ugulava before the Rose Revolution) but the videos - in one of which the Patriach, in a dubbed over voice, urged people to "get together to f*** Saakashvili" and in others in which he was portrayed as a Cosmonaut - saw here targeted by the state for attacks.

Having a prominent defender of the regime morph in the public mind into a slanderer of the Orthodox Church - easily the most trusted institution in Georgia - clearly alarmed the regime and two people were arrested for allegedly having made the videos before the authorities, in a further humiliation, had to back off: admitting there was no crime.

Now Tutberidze says the authorities are using Imedi in an attempt to get even and to make it appear that she was not accusing the Patriarch - as she has repeatedly done before - of acting in concert with the KGB when Georgia was under Soviet rule: "This once again confirms that in Georgia, the profession of journalism, the media, are under under strong pressure from religious fundamentalists and government officials."

Article 19 joins calls for an end to threats against Vakhtang Komakhidze and his family

February 23, 2010 by georgiamedia

One of the world's leading defenders of freedom of speech - Article 19 - has joined a wide range of human rights defenders in highlighting the case of Vakhtang Komakhidze, a Georgian journalist seeking political asylum in Switzerland after what he says are death threats orchestrated by the Saakashvili regime against his family.

In a press release issued yesterday the groups said:

On February 10, 2010, Mr. Vakhtang Komakhidze, a well-known investigative journalist in Georgia and a member of the South Caucasus Network of Human Rights Defenders, reported to have received death threats from the authorities against him and his family members due to his professional activities. As reported, the threat comes as the Government’s reaction to Mr. Komakhidze’s visit to de facto South Ossetia in December 2009 and the documentary movie concerning the Russia-Georgia war of August 2008, on which Mr. Komakhidze has been working recently.

In December 2009, together with two other representatives of the civil society, Mr. Komakhidze met with South Ossetian NGOs, families affected by the war and Mr. Kokoity, de facto leader of South Ossetia. After the visit, Mr. Komakhidze announced publicly that he was working on a documentary about the Russia-Georgia war of 2008, for which he also gathered materials during his visit to South Ossetia. Mr. Komakhidze highlighted that the documentary would disclose many issues yet unknown to the wide
public. For instance, two days before the war, on August 6, the State Minister of Georgia agreed with the de-facto authorities of South Ossetia about the evacuation of the grandmother of Ms. Alana Gagloeva, an employee of the President’s press-service. However, at that time, the Government was leaving the Georgian population completely unprotected, in the hands of the Russian army.

On December 17, 2009, on the same day when Mr. Komakhidze came back to Tbilisi from South Ossetia, high ranking politicians harshly criticised him and his colleagues for this visit. Their criticism was broadcasted in the news programmes by various media
outlets. For instance, Mr. Shota Malashkia, one of the ruling party’s leaders, said: “this is a disease not only for Georgia; such persons always existed during the various occupation regimes and their actions there have already been responded by the population after the de-occupation. The same will happen in case of these people [referring to those who visited Tskhinvali on December 16] as well - for some of them it will be a response through [results] in elections and for others from the moral point of view.” Media also referred to them as “betrayers”. Several days later, a stranger stopped Mr. Komakhidze and said that he wanted to warn him against his activities, that it would be better for him and his family not to bother Georgian authorities. He added that the only way out for him and his family would be to leave the country and stop filming.

On January 28, 2010, as Mr. Komakhidze was about to leave Georgia in order to film and interview representatives de facto government of South Ossetia outside the country, six to seven persons sat down next to him at the airport. One of them was the chief of security department. The men started having an aggressive conversation on Mr. Komakhidze, and one of them told him that it would be good for him that he was leaving the country. On February 9, 2010, Georgian TV channel Real-TV broadcasted a report about Mr. Komakhidze’s private life and professional activities with a clear aim to discredit Mr. Komakhidze and undermine his reputation. The TV report spread incorrect information, saying that in 2004 Mr. Vakhtang Komakhidze worked at the Ministry of Security and had to leave the Ministry because of financial machinations after one year. True fact is that Mr. Komakhidze left the Ministry three months after his appointment cased on his personal wish. The report also accused Mr. Komakhidze of pologamy and tried to portray him as a bad parent.

Accordingly, the South Caucasus Network of Human Rights Defenders, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OMCT-FIDH), Human Rights House Foundation, Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Front Line and ARTICLE 19 urge the
Georgian authorities to:

• Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Vakhtang Komakhidze and his relatives;
• Order a prompt, effective, thorough, independent and impartial investigation
• into the above-mentioned events, the result of which must be made public, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a competent, independent and impartial tribunal and apply to them the penal sanctions as
• provided by the Constitution and laws of Georgia;
• Put an end to any kind of harassment against Mr. Vakhtang Komakhidze and ensure in all circumstances that journalists and human rights defenders in the country be able to carry out their activities without hindrances;
• Comply with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international and regional human rights instruments ratified by Georgia.

Our organisations call upon the international community to:

• Urge Georgian authorities to promptly and effectively investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice;
• Urge Georgian authorities to ensure physical and physiological integrity of the family members of Vakhtang Komakhidze;
• Call upon the Georgian authorities to create an environment safe and conducive for critical voices and alternatively minded people in the country;
• Pay close attention to increasing number of persecution and pressure on journalists, NGO representatives and their family members.

Our organisations call upon the Public Defender of Georgia to:

• Ask Georgian authorities to investigate the incident promptly and impartially;
• Remind the authorities about their international human rights obligations.

You can read the full text here.