EurasiaNet Civil Society - Pressure to Report: Georgian Media Struggles for an Independent Voice

CIVIL SOCIETY

PRESSURE TO REPORT: GEORGIAN MEDIA STRUGGLES FOR AN INDEPENDENT VOICE
Molly Corso 2/23/06

Six months after President Mikheil Saakashvili pledged to protect the freedom of the press in Georgia, members of the media and local non-governmental organizations argue that media barons desirous of good ties with the government are still pressuring journalists.

In a September 9, 2005 speech, Saakashvili referred to anyone who pressured Georgian media as his "enemy" and any attack on free speech as a personal assault. "If somebody dared to put pressure on [the] media, I would be his worst enemy," he said. "It is an attack on my own prerogatives, ideals and authority."

The speech came in the wake of a series of journalism scandals, including the August 2005 arrest of Shalva Ramishvili, co-owner of the pro-opposition 202 television station, on charges of blackmail, and the brutal beating of newspaper journalist Saba Tsitsikashvili, who was investigating the city of Gori’s controversial purchase of an agricultural firm.

Opposition newspapers associated both incidents with dwindling government tolerance for inquisitive journalists. But media observers and activists argue that much of the blame needs to be placed on media owners themselves.

Zurab Khrikadze, a media analyst for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission to Georgia, argues that while the pressure placed on Georgian journalists is nearly impossible to prove, it seriously affects the quality of journalism in the country. "Enemy number one for professionalism is the lack of independence," Khrikadze said. "If they [Georgian journalists] do not become more independent, they cannot increase their professional skills. A lot of journalists understand they are not working for the public, but for the [media outlet] owners."

However, Khrikadze added that the degree of pressure is largely a matter of guesswork. "When they [journalists] speak in general terms, they say �Yes, there is pressure; there is censorship from the side of owners and the editors.’ But when it comes to the concrete fact if they are censored or pressured, then, no, they are not," Khrikadze said. "So it is difficult to have a clear picture. But, of course, we can guess. The owner has his political interests and he shapes the editorial line around that."

Akaki Gogiaishvili, a journalist at the prominent Georgian television station Rustavi-2, agrees that journalism in Georgia today revolves around the media owner and his relationship with the government. Prior to the 2003 Rose Revolution, Gogiaishvili worked as an investigative reporter on Rustavi-2’s news program 60 Minutes, a frequent critic of former President Eduard Shevardnadze’s administration.

However, once Saakashvili came to power, Gogiaishvili noted, station management lost interest in investigative journalism. "They [the owners] are quite friendly with the government, they get together, they get exclusive information on criminal arrests and they get exclusive pieces that other channels don’t get," he told EurasiaNet. "They don’t want to jeopardize that."

Since leaving 60 Minutes, Gogiaishvili has begun production on a new reality TV show in which entrepreneurs compete for up to $27,000 in start-up funds to be awarded by a board made up of leading businesspeople and State Minister for Economic Reforms Kakha Bendukidze.

Gogiaishvili noted that it is not "commercially viable" for Rustavi-2 to show controversial news shows and journalists get that message from the owners. Rustavi-2 currently boasts the highest viewership among Georgia’s television channels, and management is reluctant to tinker with programming, he added.

"I think they [the owners] fear that there are grounds that if they allow themselves some critical [coverage] that would anger the government, their business interests would be challenged and they don’t feel the need to be doing that."

In a 2005 media freedom report compiled by the international media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, Georgia slipped five places, from 94th to 99th out of 167 countries surveyed.

Public Defender Solzar Subari argues that business interests, and not the government, are the real culprit for any problems encountered by Georgian journalists. "Concerning freedom of speech, especially in television, there is this problem: The owners of television are not always very critical of the government and that is� evident in nuances. But the problem is that most owners of television don’t work on earnings. [The media outlets] serve as lobbies for the owners’ relationship with the government," Subari commented. "The fact is that television is not a business yet."

The OSCE’s Khrikadze agrees that media content is dictated by businessmen who are more interested in pushing their own agendas than championing freedom of the press. "The experts say that the major media outlets consume more finances then they generate which means they are financed by their owners by other sources," he said. "They look at media as a side tool, as an instrument in their businesses. It is difficult to combat these things�it affects freedom of the media a lot because there is no independent source of financing."

As one case in point, the owner of Rustavi-2, Kibar Khalvashi, also works as the Georgian representative for US-based consumer goods company Proctor & Gamble, which frequently advertises on the channel, Khrikadze noted. Khalvashi is the general manager of ARTI, which acts as Proctor & Gamble’s distributor in Georgia.

In the West, advertising revenue provides much of the lifeblood for television stations, but, in Georgia, such income is meager. The recent introduction of a national ratings system has been cited by the US Agency for International Development and the International Research and Exchange Board as contributing to a quadrupling of Georgia’s television ad market since 2001, the English-language daily The Messenger recently reported, but at an estimated $12 million, potential revenues for 2006 are decidedly slim.

Observers note that the lack of advertising revenue motivated the recent merger of Rustavi-2 with Mze TV, the first major media merger in Georgia. On January 5, according to local media, Rustavi-2 bought 78 percent of the shares of Mze TV from SakCementi, a Georgian firm specializing in building supplies owned by Davit Bezhuashvili, a member of parliament and the brother of Gela Bezhuashvili, the Georgian foreign minister.

While Georgian media has called this sale a buy-out by Khalvashi, Mze Acting Director Zaza Tananashvili described the transaction as more of a new partnership. "The owner of Rustavi-2, Kibar Khavashi, bought shares of Mze. The owner of Mze bought shares in Rustavi [2]," he told EurasiaNet. "[T]hat doesn’t mean they have joined. They are staying separate."

Tananashvili added that the new set-up will be better for both stations. "I think that [there] will be an improvement. This will be better for both companies because Rustavi-2 and Mze will be partners and they will decide financial problems together."

Rustavi-2 did not respond to repeated requests to speak with station attorneys about the Mze stock purchase, but the station’s need for fresh financial muscle is apparently keen. On February 13, the Georgian government restructured Rustavi-2’s tax debt, giving the station an additional five years to pay a reported $1 million in back taxes, local media reported. The station will be free from all payments for the next two years.

While the OSCE’s Khrikadze sees no legal irregularities with the Rustavi 2-Mze partnership, he doubts it will lead to better journalism. "I don’t know what they have in mind, but the fact is that it does not make either television station more independent from the government, that is for sure," he said. "This will probably result in changes in format on either channel, but it will not increase the extent of their independence or improve the perception of professional ethics."

Ethics is a hot topic in journalism in Georgia today. Ramishvili, the former host and co-founder of the television station 202 is in jail on charges of attempting to blackmail parliamentary deputy Koba Bekauri, a member of the majority National Front. Six months after his arrest, Ramishvili - along with his business partner David Kokhreidze � is on trial and facing a possible six- year jail sentence for blackmail.

Media activists like Magda Popiashvili, chairwoman of the Georgian Media Club, believe this is another attack on journalists. "Today Shalva Ramishvili is in jail and I don’t know who will be in prison tomorrow or who will be beaten. Those types of things unfortunately happen here every day," she said. "The government itself is not doing anything to cause the situation to change."

One organization intended to improve working conditions for Georgian journalists is the Georgian Council on Media Ethics, a group formed with the government’s encouragement. But, here, too, controversy has prevailed. Newspaper journalists have tended to steer clear of the group, while activists like Popiashvili have denounced it as just another way for the government to censor journalists. Council member Gia Nodia, a prominent policy analyst, argues that the group "has no real power" to serve as a censor, but concedes that its image among some journalists as "a government initiative" has deterred many from joining.

Giorgi Kokhreidze, David Kokhreidze’s brother and the third co-owner of 202, agrees that his brother’s arrest is a direct attempt to quiet his station’s anti-government programming. According to him, since his brother’s arrest in August, both he and the TV station have been under constant pressure from the government to close.

"They [the government] are doing all of that so the television station closes and falls into their hands," Kokhreidze told EurasiaNet. "There have been cases when people come to me, ask forgiveness, say they want to advertise with me but can’t. They say they will have problems if they do." However, Kokhreidze would not name any concrete businesses. "There will be a time when I can say, when I will name the people who stop them," he said.

Public Defender Subari argues that the Ramishvili case is simply a criminal prosecution for alleged blackmail with no connection to journalism. He noted that the station 202 remains open, and continues to broadcast strongly anti-government programming.

Nonetheless, for Rustavi-2’s Gogiaishvili, little hope exists for improving the situation in the immediate future. "The media is not fulfilling its role at all in terms of scrutinizing the government and serving as a medium to show the public how the government actually acts," he said. "Personally, I don’t see in the nearest future any prospect for getting back to what we had at the end of the Shevardnadze regime: enthusiasm and enthusiastic, muckraking journalism."

Editor�s Note: Molly Corso is a freelance reporter and photographer based in Tbilisi. This report also contains reporting by Kakha Jibladze.

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