When declared its independence in 1991, Tamar Kintsurashvili knew that from then on, she wanted to play an active role in shaping democracy. “In the Soviet system you had no voice, no rights. You were part of a totalitarian system,” she told DW.
“In a democracy, you are responsible for controlling your own government, and you have the responsibility to be an active citizen,” she continued. “And the media plays a crucial role here, by balancing different branches of power.”
Kintsurashvili used to work as a journalist. Now she is the executive director of an independent foundation for media development in Georgia’s capital that advocates for civic freedoms and human rights. There she offers workshops on fact-checking and countering hate speech. But her work is getting harder, as Georgia becomes increasingly repressive.
For her dedication and commitment, DW is awarding Kintsurashvili, 55, with this year’s Freedom of Speech Award (). Since 2015, the DW Freedom of Speech Award has honored journalists and human rights defenders as a way to call attention to restrictions on and human rights situations of concern around the world.
DW’s Director General Peter Limbourg said this year’s award was in recognition of Kintsurashvili’s determination to battle disinformation in Georgia.
“Her efforts to combat propaganda from home and abroad are indispensable to press freedom and free speech, as well as for people’s faith in the media,” Limbourg said. “The country is currently at a crossroads, facing a parliament without an active opposition, a frozen EU accession process, and new authoritarian press laws similar to those we are familiar with from Russia.”
Mounting pressure
Kintsurashvili says she can already feel the pressure mounting. “On a daily basis, you learn that the government is trying to invent something new to stop you,” she said.
Last year the ruling Georgian Dream party — which has been in power since 2012 and is frequently characterized as Moscow-friendly — passed a so-called “foreign agents” bill that requires media and non-governmental organizations receiving at least 20% of their funding from abroad to formally register as “agents of foreign influence.” Those failing to do so previously faced fines. Now that the bill has been updated, they might even go to prison. The legislation has been amended to potentially also be applicable to individuals.
Kintsurashvili’s foundation is completely financed from abroad. But she refuses to register under the new act. “The goal of this legislation is to undermine trust in our actions,” she said. “You need to have credible information in order to make the right choices. This is how democracy works.”
At the time it was passed, thousands protested against the bill. The government’s decision last November to pause the EU-accession process only . Just a year earlier, the EU had granted Georgia candidate status.
Demonstrators continue to rail against what they say is an authoritarian course taken by Georgia’s leadership. In recent months the government has on free speech and freedom of assembly.
Kintsurashvili has also noticed increased pressure on her as an individual. She told DW how masked individuals had repeatedly vandalized the entrance to her office and called her and her colleagues “pseudo-liberal fascists.”
“And we were receiving offensive calls, including at midnight. They were swearing at me. They reached my family members, my husband and my daughter,” Kintsurashvili recounts.
Her organization has teamed up with other groups to file a case against the “foreign agents” bill at the .
From journalism to fact-checking
Born to a middle class family in 1970 in the western Georgian town of Tskaltubo, the journalist lived through dramatic times, including the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and then the Georgian civil war. The separatist regions of Abkhazia and declared themselves independent and in 2008, Russia became one of just a handful of nations to recognize them. Today thousands of Russian troops are stationed in the regions that Georgia considers Russian-occupied.
Against the backdrop of this political upheaval, Kintsurashvili studied journalism at Tbilisi State University. In 1994, she landed a job with Georgia’s first independent paper, Droni. There, she interviewed power-brokers like Eduard Shevardnadze, who served as the final Soviet era foreign affairs minister and was elected as Georgia’s president in 1995. Later she became the paper’s political editor, then its deputy editor.
She attended a fellowship program that enabled her to visit major media outlets such as international news agency Reuters.
“The exchange program in the US and in Europe helped me learn how to do independent journalism. We were less experienced at that time and we were learning by doing,” she said.
Kintsurashvili would eventually go on to become the general director of Georgia’s public broadcaster.
Award offers encouragement
Since 2014, Kintsurashvili has dedicated herself to fighting for a free press via fact-checking and debunking misinformation.
“Fact checking was not popular initially and there was no need because traditional media was doing its job,” she said. “But because of technological developments and the changes in media ecosystems, it has become clear that not only journalists are part of this media ecosystem, but media consumers as well. And we all need to be able to distinguish facts from fake news. Information is power and powerful institutions, governments autocrats and some business interests, are trying to manipulate public opinion.”
Over 300 people have participated in her workshops on press freedom and combating disinformation and hate speech. Some of the training was offered through her fact-checking website Myth Detector Labs, which she founded in 2017 with the help of DW Academy. She also teaches journalism ethics and propaganda theory at Ilia State University in Tbilisi.
International support is now more important than ever, she argued. Kintsurashvili is currently taking part in a six-month scholarship program in France that allows her to connect with human rights activists from around the world.
The DW Freedom of Speech Award “gives you the feeling that you are not left alone against this oppressive government. This is a message that we are doing important work for our country and for a better and democratic Georgia.”
This article was translated from German.
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