Human Rights Watch has published the World Report of events that took place in 2010. This 21st annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2010 by Human Rights Watch staff, usually in close partnership with domestic human rights activists. The report also focuses on media freedom in these countries.
GEORGIA
Media Freedom
The media environment remains mixed, with diverse print media, but nationwide television broadcasting limited to the state-owned Public Broadcaster and pro-government Rustavi 2 and Imedi stations. Transparency of media ownership remains a concern.
Several journalists alleged pressure and attacks. On June 25, police assaulted Gori-based Trialeti television journalist Lado Bichashvili and cameraman Imeda Gogoladze as they filmed the removal of a Stalin statue from the city center. About eight policemen beat the journalists and confiscated their camera, which they later returned with materials deleted.
Human Rights Watch has published the World Report of events that took place in 2010. This 21st annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2010 by Human Rights Watch staff, usually in close partnership with domestic human rights activists. The report also focuses on media freedom in these countries.
GEORGIA
Media Freedom
The media environment remains mixed, with diverse print media, but nationwide television broadcasting limited to the state-owned Public Broadcaster and pro-government Rustavi 2 and Imedi stations. Transparency of media ownership remains a concern.
Several journalists alleged pressure and attacks. On June 25, police assaulted Gori-based Trialeti television journalist Lado Bichashvili and cameraman Imeda Gogoladze as they filmed the removal of a Stalin statue from the city center. About eight policemen beat the journalists and confiscated their camera, which they later returned with materials deleted.
In July Vakhtang Komakhidze, a long-time Georgian investigative journalist, received asylum in Switzerland, citing threats by the authorities. The threats allegedly intensified after Komakhidze started work on an investigative film regarding the August 2008 war in South Ossetia.
In February the opposition newspaper Guria News, published in Western Georgia, alleged that local authorities threatened and intimidated the private distributors who distribute the newspaper. On February 8, police briefly detained Guria News correspondent Irakli Dolidze as he photographed a police official, confiscating his photo camera and cell phone temporarily.
On November 25, 2009, the Ministry of Interior’s Special Operations Department called in Tedo Jorbenadze, head of the investigations unit at the independent Batumi-based weekly newspaper Batumelebi, and threatened to publish photos of near-naked men, Jorbenadze allegedly among them, if he refused to cooperate with intelligence services.
Source: Human Rights Watch