Chief Georgian media professionals, activists, and ordinary individuals demonstrated in central Tbilisi to support government-critical Mtavari Arkhi TV and its Director General Nika Gvaramia, who was imprisoned on allegations relating to power abuse.
Protest banners said "No to Censorship!" and "No Selective Justice," protesters marched from First Republic Square to the Parliament building on Shota Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi's major artery. The demonstration then marched to the Chubinashvili Street offices of Mtavari Arkhi TV.
"We will fight… until Nika Gvaramia is released; we have no other alternative," said Nino Jangirashvili, director of the government-critical TV Caucasus and one of the rally's organisers. Jangirashvili, urged on President Salome Zourabichvili to exercise her presidential powers to pardon Gvaramia. The founder of the ruling Georgian Dream, Jangirashvili believes Zourabichvili may at least mitigate the repercussions.
During the march, Mtavari Arkhi TV journalist Mikheil Sesiashvili emphasised that the struggle for Gvaramia's freedom is about more than one man's fate. "I don't believe this is merely a dispute amongst journalists," Sesiashvili said, adding that the decision against his TV head calls the country's future into doubt.
The Georgian Alliance of Regional Broadcasters, which represents hundreds of regional media stations, described the jail sentence for Nika Gvaramia, the government-critical Mtavari Arkhi TV leader, as "politically driven" and a danger to autonomous and critical media.
Also, on May 16, Netgazeti and its Batumi-based partner Batumelebi called Gvaramia's detention "especially disturbing" and a threat to every journalist and media outlet that does not "follow the government's censorship and condemns its operations..."
Gvaramia's detention, according to Netgazeti, is a frightening but it is "logical continuation of the oppressive approach undertaken by the Georgian authorities against the media beyond their control in the last few years."
In the run-up to the opposition TV chief's prison sentence, the media outlet cited unchecked homophobic violence on July 5, 2021, which left more than 50 journalists attacked, the ruling Georgian Dream's media-critical statements, that authorities "providing less public information," and the restriction of critical journalists' attendance at various events, among other issues.
"The acts of the Prosecutor's Office and the court did not serve justice, but a political goal, which is an attempt to suppress the media undesired to the government," Publika's editorial staff declared on May 18. "The administration has been marching step by step on a route we can proudly term a stated record of the struggle against media," Publika said.
MEPs biased, according to GD MP
MEPs who labelled Nika Gvaramia's detention "ungrounded" questioned the objectivity and understanding of case specifics of TV, according to Nikoloz Samkharadze, Georgian Dream MP and Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee.
"I doubt the case [materials] were completely translated into English, and these gentlemen and women had enough time to read them. As a result, everything is dependent on impressions," remarked MP Samkharadze. "It's absurd that certain politicians declare a prejudiced conclusion the day after the judgement because they haven't studied the case," he continued. "These are all perception-based claims," MP Samkharadze said, "and to me biased statements since a perception-based remark can never be impartial." The "great majority" of these MPs, according to Samkharadze, were outspoken supporters of Georgian opposition groups.
