Between September 2025 and August 2026, the Center for Media, Information and Social Research (CMIS) documented 229 incidents, violations of media freedom in Georgia, affecting 117 media organizations and 174 individual journalists. Most were affected more than once. The broad picture based on these data is that the state has taken extensive measures to make independent journalism financially and legally unsustainable.
The character of the pressure in the current reporting period is as follows: verbal attacks were the most frequent incident type recorded (102), followed by legal incidents (81) and illegal interference with journalists’ work (33), while employment rights accounted for 21 and the use of repressive legislation accounted for 15 incidents. The most common single form of attack was discrediting – 69 of the 102 cases of verbal attacks were attempts to portray independent journalists and outlets as foreign-funded propaganda instruments, serving foreign interests. Responsibility for these violations lies overwhelmingly with the state. Courts (46), law enforcement (32), and pro-government media outlets (27) were the three actors most frequently identified as responsible for incidents, followed by the Georgian Dream Party, the Parliament of Georgia and the Speaker of Parliament. The attacks were often less a series of individual remarks than a sustained campaign directed at independent outlets.
Tightening of legislation significantly worsened media freedom and freedom of expression in the country. Three waves of amendments during the reporting period – in October 2025, December 2025 and March 2026, further tightened sanctions for protest-related conduct, expanded criminal liability for repeat offenses, and criminalised the receipt of foreign funding without government permission. Most were adopted under accelerated procedure without parliamentary and public scrutiny. Following the tightened legislation journalists have been detained and imprisoned both while they were carrying out their duties and while they were participating in protests. Overall, 16 such cases were documented during the reporting period.
The case of Mzia Amaglobeli illustrates how domestic remedies have completely closed. The imprisoned founder of Batumelebi.ge and Netgazeti.ge exhausted every level of the Georgian court system during the reporting period, with the Supreme Court declining to examine her case on the merits and without an oral hearing. Early release was refused on the stated ground that she does not regret her actions. Parliamentary delegations from the OSCE and the Council of Europe were both denied permission to visit her, and two defamation claims she brought against the Prime Minister were terminated without even being heard. Four applications have now been filed on her behalf with the European Court of Human Rights.
Furthermore, two institutions have been the instruments of pressure during the monitoring period – the Communications Commission and the Parliament of Georgia. The Communications Commission began systematic monitoring of broadcast content in March 2026 and has since issued fines to TV channels critical of the government for the vocabulary used in their news programs. During this reporting period it has enforced the new funding restrictions against broadcasters receiving foreign grants. Parliament, on the other hand, has put up more barriers for journalists to obtain accreditation – eight cases of suspension or early termination were recorded, and in five of the six suspensions the stated ground was that a journalist continued asking questions after a Member of Parliament declined to answer. Seven applications for special accreditation under a procedure introduced in January 2026 were refused, mostly without explanation.
At the Public Broadcaster, the policy of dismissals, disciplinary sanctions and program closures that began in 2024 continued without much change, having affected 29 employees since spring 2025, with a reorganization at Adjara Television resulting in the dismissal of at least six journalists in 2026. In June 2026 Parliament abolished the open competition and independent commission through which members of the Board of Trustees had been selected, replacing them with direct nomination by quota holders in the Parliament.
Georgia has also ceased to be a safe place for exiled and foreign journalists. If the previous reporting period involved denials of entry into the country for foreign journalists, this one also saw a deportation, forced departure and a revocation of residence permit. Three journalists were expelled or compelled to leave the country, and four journalists and a journalism student were denied entry or held at the border. In several cases fines were imposed for reporting on protests. Exiled Azerbaijani Journalist Afgan Sadigov was subject to the transnational repression with the support of the Georgian government institutions.
The significance of the reporting year lies not only in the number of violations documented, but also in the escalation of restrictive measures against media. The period addresses the criminal case brought against a broadcaster in Georgia, the first administrative imprisonment imposed on a journalist for a social media post, early termination of parliamentary accreditation and the year-long suspension of a journalist’s accreditation.
