We, journalists, editors, media professionals, and press freedom advocates from Georgia a country currently experiencing one of the fastest deteriorations in press freedom are reaching out to you on World Press Freedom Day with an urgent plea for global solidarity and action.
Around the world, media workers are facing increasing pressure: physical attacks, repressive legislation, and politically motivated prosecutions. These tactics take many forms and are used by authoritarian regimes to silence the press and control public narratives. However, what we are witnessing in Georgia today is an unprecedented, large-scale, and rapid crackdown on independent media.
In just a few months, Georgia’s ruling party, founded and led by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, has adopted over a dozen laws and legislative amendments to repress independent media and civil society. Many of us face the threat of criminal charges under new laws that falsely brand us as agents of foreign interests, simply because our organizations receive grants from international foundations that support press freedom globally, including some that you may also work with. Several of us have already been fined thousands of Georgian lari for reporting on ongoing protests. Some have been convicted of administrative offenses based on fabricated charges. Our colleagues have been violently attacked some even during live broadcastsby special task forces and masked, unknown individuals; in several cases, the injuries were so severe that surgeries were required, and lives were saved only by chance. Despite the severity of these attacks, not a single perpetrator has been arrested or charged.
Beyond physical attacks, we have faced daily threats: hate campaigns, vandalized office spaces and cars, intimidating phone calls, restricted access to public records and institutions, and an increasingly closed environment that blocks journalists from interviewing officials or accessing information.
And now, for the first time in Georgia’s post-independence history, a female journalist has been imprisoned on politically motivated charges. Mzia Amaglobeli, a pioneer of independent journalism in Georgia and the founder of a media outlet that has set standards in the country for over 24 years, is facing 4 to 7 years in prison. Authorities have repeatedly smeared her in public, branding her a foreign agent or accusing her of serving outside interests. She has been chosen as an example, targeted in hopes of chilling and silencing critical and independent media.
Mzia Amaglobeli is not only a prisoner of conscience, but also a woman journalist who has endured inhumane and degrading treatment in detention. Denied justice and dignity, she began a hunger strike that lasted 38 days, consuming only water.
The ruling party heavily influences the Public Broadcaster of Georgia, and critical voices within the organization are being systematically persecuted. Some journalists have received official warnings, others have been removed from their positions, and even one of the broadcaster’s most important programs, Real Space, has been shut down.
On May 1st, one of Georgia’s largest independent broadcasters Mtavarii TV was forced to shut down. Journalists of the Public Broadcaster have become victims of repression and politically motivated persecution. Yet, despite all this, we remain committed. Journalists, editors, and media professionals from Georgia are determined to continue our work. We are staying on the ground, exposing the truth, and defending press freedom in the face of rising authoritarianism.
We all know how authoritarian regimes can destroy once-thriving, pluralistic media environments. We have seen it happen in too many countries. We do not want to be next.
Now, if not too late, is the moment to raise our voices. Please stand with us. Use every platform available to amplify our message. Help the world hear the plea from this small country in the South Caucasus a country that once served as a haven for persecuted journalists, and now needs protection.
Stand with us and fight before it is too late, as Mzia Amaglobeli has called on all of us from behind bars while on her hunger strike.
This appeal is signed by more than 100 journalists and media rights defenders.
