NOV. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a visit to Tbilisi, Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, praised Georgia’s contribution to EU-led military peace operations in Africa but also warned the country that it shouldn’t take media freedom for granted.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A journalist documenting forced labour practices in east Uzbekistan said his office had been burnt down in an act of sabotage, media reported. Dmitiry Tikhonov also said that files with data on a number of specific cases appear to have been stolen from his office in Angren.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Georgia handed the opposition leaning Rustavi-2 television station back to a pro-government businessman who owned it in 2004- 6, drawing accusations it was clamping down on free speech.
Two days after the ruling hundreds of people took to the streets of Tbilisi to protest against what they say is a crackdown on media freedom, ramping up tension in Georgia’s increasingly polarised society.
Under the court ruling, Kibar Kha- lvashi took back control of 60% of the shares in Rustavi-2, one of the most popular TV channels in Georgia, which he said he was pressured into selling to supporters of the then president Mikheil Saaskashvili.
“I declared at the beginning that it was my battle for justice. I want justice to be restored for everyone that suffered from Saakashvili’s regime,” media quoted Mr Khalvashi as saying. “This applies not only to Rustavi-2, but also to all other personal property that has been lost or confiscated.”
The other 40% of Rustavi2 is held by Panorama ltd. The current owners, two businessmen, have appealed the court’s decision.
The row over ownership of Rus- tavi-2 is just the latest increasingly bitter row between supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition and their opponents, mainly Mr Saakashvilil’s former party — the UNM.
The Georgian Dream coalition, bankrolled by Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, won a parliamentary election in Georgian in 2012 and a presidential election in 2013. Since then public prosecutors have accused various supporters of Mr Saaskashvili of crimes when they were in power, imprisoning them or chasing them out of the country.
The US and European governments have warned the Georgian government of pursuing vendettas.
On Friday, several hundred people again gathered outside the headquarters of the TV station.
“We will not let the so-called new management enter our premises,” Rustavi2’s news anchor Zaal Udu- mashvili told the AFP news agency. “We will defend Rustavi-2 physically, using all available legal means.”
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities paid a journalist working for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty $30,000 in compensation after they admitted that police officers had beaten him in 2008. Agil Khalil was beaten by policemen when he tried to take photos in Baku.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik authorities asked media to refrain from reporting on the now banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT). According to officials, the IRPT had planned to overthrow the Tajik government before its leaders were arrested in September. They have said foreign media has been duped into painting them as victims of repression.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Almaty shut the Adam newspaper, saying that, by publishing in Russian only, it violated the law on languages. Human rights groups said this was a pretext to curb independent media in Kazakhstan. A paper linked to the opposition, Adam was created in March 2015 after its predecessor Adam Bol was shut down in December 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US State Department said it was disturbed by reports that opposition TV channel Rustavi2 may be forced off the air after a court seized a stake in the company, cutting off access to funds that it said it needed to survive. The US has warned the Georgian Dream coalition government about eroding democracy and media freedom in Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
SEPT. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said that police had raided the home of journalist Islam Shikhali, one of its freelance contributors based in Baku. The West has criticised Azerbaijan for pressuring media. RFE/RL has closed its office in Baku.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
OCT. 2 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s main opposition TV channel Rustavi2 said it will have to stop broadcasting within days unless it finds more cash quickly after a court seized a controlling stake in the company.
The court blocked the sale of the 51% stake to a relative of a former defence minister, a sale that had been considered vital to keep Rustavi2 afloat after an earlier decision linked to a row with a former shareholder handed control of the TV channel’s assets to the authorities.
At a press conference at the TV channel’s HQ in Tbilisi, Rustavi2 director Nika Gvaramia said that its closure was imminent.
“The current government, lead by Ivanishvili promises democracy, but they have finally done what they have wanted to do for the past four years — shut Rustavi2 down,” he said.
Bidzina Ivanishvili is Georgia’s richest man and architect of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition.
Since winning a parliamentary election in 2012 and a presidential election a year later, Mr Ivanishvili and Georgian Dream have been trying to purge Georgia of remnants of former president Mikheil Saakashvili and his allies.
And analysts said that Rustavi2, one of only three main TV channels, has long been in his sights.
Maia Mikashavidze, a Tbilisi-based professor of mass communication, said Rustavi2 is considered one of the few voices critical of the current government and that the decision by the court to block the sale of the stake did carry a political undertone.
“Rustavi2’s operations are seriously threatened and may stall any time because the station is short of cash because of insufficient ad sales,” Ms Mikashavidze said.
“This limits access to alternative views and facts for a huge numbers of viewers who rely on Rustavi2 for that service.”
In Kutaisi, hundreds of people rallied in front of parliament to demand that the government take action to protect Rustavi2.
The US government, which has previously criticised Mr Ivanishvili and his supporters for their excessive zeal in prosecuting people and companies linked to Mr Saakashvili, said that it was concerned about the case.
“We do not like to see any kind of limitation on this pluralistic media environment.” US Ambassador Ian Kelley said in a statement.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
OCT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The OSCE, Europe’s main election and media rights watchdog, sent a note to the Kazakh government asking it not to cut access to news website which have been critical of the authorities. The OSCE has previously criticised Kazakhstan for is media rights record.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)