Journalists working in Georgia face growing threats, two press freedom watchdogs have warned amid a string of assaults and a government-led crackdown on civil society.
The European Center for Press and Media freedom on Tuesday published a report following a fact-finding mission to the South Caucasus country, declaring that the situation has reached “a crisis point.”
It warns reporters face “a lack of sustainable funding for independent media, government targeting of donor organizations, severely restricted access to public information [and] the use of vexatious lawsuits to target journalists.”
Of particular concern, it said, is the treatment of exiled Russian and Belarusian journalists working in Georgia after being forced to flee Russia as Moscow brutally suppresses critical voices.
At the same time, the Media Freedom Coalition, backed by 51 countries across the world, including the U.S., U.K., Germany and France, issued a statement condemning the “continuing threats, physical assaults, and destruction of property which journalists and civil society representatives working in Georgia have experienced recently.”
Earlier this month, the EU’s ambassador to Georgia said the country’s hopes of joining the bloc had been “stopped for now” after the government passed a controversial bill that would label Western-funded NGOs as “foreign agents.”
The move, which legal experts say echoes legislation used by Moscow to target activists and the media, has sparked widespread protests, with riot police beating and detaining demonstrators.
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