On October 22, Mzia Amaghlobeli, the founder of Batumelebi and Netgazeti, who has been imprisoned for more than nine months, received the European Union’s highest human rights honor, the Sakharov Prize. This recognition of the journalist was followed by yet another attempt by pro-government television stations to discredit her.
Imedi TV published a series of propaganda-style social media posts about Mzia Amaghlobeli’s receipt of the Sakharov Prize. Among them were posts highlighting the Prime Minister from the Georgian Dream party referring to the journalist as a “foreign agent.”
Rustavi 2 published photos of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili together with Mzia Amaghlobeli and included a quote from Saakashvili about the journalist in the accompanying text – an apparent attempt to associate Amaghlobeli and her work with a political party.
Alongside Mzia Amaghlobeli, the Sakharov Prize was also awarded to imprisoned Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut. The Sakharov Prize honors individuals, groups, or organizations that have made an outstanding contribution to the defense of freedom of expression.
On October 25, the Speaker of Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, once again tried to discredit Netgazeti. In a post published on his social media account, Shalva Papuashvili referred to Netgazeti as “a propaganda media outlet supporting terrorists.”
Papuashvili attached to his post a screenshot of a Netgazeti article in which the outlet referred to Zviad Kvaratskhelia, who was detained during a pro-European rally, as a “prisoner of conscience.” It was precisely this term that angered the Speaker of Parliament from the Georgian Dream party. Critical media outlets, including Netgazeti, often use the term “prisoner of conscience” when reporting on those detained during pro-European demonstrations.
Shalva Papuashvili frequently attempts to discredit critical media outlets, including the online platform Netgazeti, through his social media posts.
On October 10, 2025, the Georgian Dream referred to the founder of “Batumelebi”/“Netgazeti”, the prisoner Mzia Amaglobeli, as a perpetrator and “executor of the tasks of the deep state”. This statement by the Georgian Dream followed the presentation of the IPI-IMS World Press Freedom Hero Award to Mzia Amaglobeli.
“The decision to present the Hero Award to a criminal who deliberately attacked the police and with this action slapped not one specific law enforcement officer, but the entire system and the state, is another act of impudence, a mockery of Georgian society, a mockery of free speech and free media”, – said the press service of the Georgian Dream, Giorgi Grdzelishvili, at a briefing.
It is worth noting that this briefing was largely devoted to the topic of presenting the award to Mzia Amaglobeli. “The presentation of the Hero Award to Mzia Amaglobeli clearly shows the difficult situation of the international media, the international press…”, – said the spokesperson of the “Georgian Dream” at a special briefing.
On October 9, 2025, it became known that Mzia Amaglobeli, who was sentenced to 2 years in prison by the “Georgian Dream” court for slapping a police officer, is among the winners of the 2025 World Press Freedom Hero Award. The award is established by the International Press Institute IPI-IMS. A total of 7 journalists were named as the winners of the 2025 award. “This year’s award winners are examples of the threats facing journalists around the world, as authoritarianism takes hold, impunity prevails, and new challenges arise for freedom of expression,” – said the Executive Director of the IPI.
On October 5, 2025, the propaganda television station POSTV referred to “TV Pirveli” journalist Tea Adeishvili as a “national propagandist.” “I am a descendant of Kakutsa Cholokashvili’s comrade-in-arms” – this phrase, mentioned by Tea Adeishvili during the election broadcast, has been placed on the POTSV card without context, and Tea Adeishvili’s regalia reads – “National propagandist Tea Adeishvili”.
Media outlets and journalists with critical editorial policies have recently become targets of discrediting POSTV more than once. The propaganda, affiliated with the “Georgian Dream” government, POSTV continues the vicious trend of discrediting independent media by high-ranking public figures of the “Georgian Dream”.
On October 5, 2025, the propaganda television station POSTV, affiliated with the Georgian Dream, referred to the independent online media outlets Netgazeti, Publika, and Tabula, as well as TV Pirveli and Formula, as “propaganda media of the National Movement.” POSTV accused the aforementioned media outlets of concealing information about a police officer injured during a protest the previous day, October 4.
The visual material (card) distributed by POSTV bears the logos of these media outlets and the following text: “The propaganda media of the National Movement have not asked a single question about the critically ill police officer Giorgi Barbakadze so far.”
The editor of “Publika”, Zura Vardiashvili, responded to this fact on social media. He noted that he would not have responded to the information spread by the propaganda media if it were not for the coordinated attacks of recent days. He said that in fact the publication has prepared a number of materials on the topic of the injured policeman and added links to all the materials in the comments to his own statement.
On October 4, 2025, the day of the local self-government elections (which were boycotted by a large part of the pro-Western opposition and the public), the Chairman of the Georgian Dream Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, called some of the information disseminated by TV Pirveli from the polling stations “funny and curious” and referred to the TV company as “Khazaradze’s TV.”
“Today, all day long, Khazaradze’s TV, TV Pirveli, has been trying to stir up scandals, although I think they are making a mockery of themselves,” Shalva Papuashvili said at a special briefing. He then listed several TV Pirveli stories from the polling stations, which, in his opinion, were just funny. Among these materials were a table at a polling station and the alleged case of bribery. “I don’t know if Khazaradze is feeding his journalists now,” Papuashvili added, noting that there is nothing strange about someone taking care of feeding the election administration. After discussing the alleged bribery case, he said again: “Here, Khazaradze has sunk to such a level that not only did he violate journalistic ethics for all members of his television, but there are now funny curiosities in general” (timecode 5:52–8:16).
As a reminder, on October 4, a number of independent media outlets became targets of Shalva Papuashvili’s attacks for spreading information related to election violations. Among them were TOK2regions and Publika. More broadly, recently, Shalva Papuashvili’s attacks on the media and efforts to discredit them have become a worrying trend.
On October 4, 2025, the day of local elections (which were boycotted by much of the pro-Western opposition and the public), Georgian Dream Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili accused the independent studio TOK2region of spreading disinformation and referred to it as “partisan media.” Papuashvili’s statement followed a video released by TOK2region from the 4th polling station in Akhaltsikhe, showing two voters in a single polling booth.
The Georgian Dream parliamentary speaker claimed that one of the voters actually needed assistance from the other due to vision problems. “Akhaltsikhe, precinct 4, where disinformation was also spread by partisan media claiming that voting control had taken place. In fact, the case concerned a voter with impaired vision, who asked for help and was assisted while filling out the ballot,” said Papuashvili, with TOK2region footage in the background labeled FAKE [timecode: 1:11–1:41].
Following Papuashvili’s statement, TOK2region released the full video footage, which shows that the voter did not ask for help. On the contrary, after the precinct commission chairman noticed that the media was recording the incident, he issued a warning to the voters. “The accusations that Shalva Papuashvili himself is spreading about our media—calling the independent editorial office ‘party media’ and accusing it of distributing content that TOK2region never published—are, in our view, yet another attack on our outlet,” TOK2region said in a statement.
Shalva Papuashvili’s attacks on independent media and efforts to discredit them have long been a persistent trend. The CMIS incident archive contains more than 10 documented cases of media attacks by the Chairman of the Georgian Dream Parliament. Independent and critical media were also a particular target of Papuashvili on October 4.
On October 4, 2025, on the day of local elections (which were boycotted by a large part of the pro-Western opposition), former Prime Minister of the Georgian Dream, Irakli Gharibashvili, who was at the polling station, called journalists from TV Pirveli and Formula “scoundrels” and “main fakers” at the 11th polling station in Tbilisi.
His response followed questions from journalists about whether he himself was expecting to be arrested, since everyone around him was being detained.
On October 4, 2025, the day of the local self-government elections (which were boycotted by a large part of the pro-Western opposition), while at a polling station, Georgian Dream President Mikheil Kavelashvili called TV Pirveli journalist Ina Tsartsidze a “liar” and a representative of a “lying television.”
“You and your patrons are deceiving young people and the public, claiming that we are illegitimate,” Kavelashvili said in response to the journalist, who was trying to get an answer from him about whether he had been contacted by U.S. President Donald Trump.
On October 4, 2025, during the local government elections (which the opposition and a large part of society consider illegitimate), numerous cases of obstruction of work, threats, and verbal and physical abuse against media representatives were recorded.
Publicly reported incidents:
- Verbal attack on journalists
- Kakha Kaladze, the candidate for mayor of Tbilisi from the Georgian Dream, called journalists “impudent”. The incident took place at the 64th polling station in Tbilisi. After voting, Kakha Kaladze was talking about the protection of freedom of speech and expression in the country. A “Formula” journalist asked him what this meant, to which he replied – “There is some politeness, there is ethics, I understand that you have neither one nor the other.”
- The president of the Georgian Dream, Mikheil Kavelashvili, called TV Pirveli journalist Ina Tsartsidze a “liar” and a representative of a “liar television.” “You, your bosses, are deceiving the youth, the society, that we are illegitimate,” Kavelashvili replied to the journalist, who was trying to get an answer from him whether US President Donald Trump had contacted him.
- Former Prime Minister of the Georgian Dream, Irakli Gharibashvili, called journalists from TV Pirveli and Formula “scoundrels” and “main fakers” at the 11th polling station in Tbilisi. His response followed questions from journalists about whether he himself was expecting to be arrested, since everyone around him is being detained.
- Cases of interference with work of journalists were reported
4. At Akhaltsikhe polling station No. 6, the chairman of the precinct commission restricted journalist Nuka Stepnadze of the publication “Samkhretis Karibche” from filming at the polling station. He told the journalist that he could only film for 10 minutes. According to the publication, the chairman of the commission only allowed the journalist to continue working after the district commission contacted him and explained the rules.
5. In Batumi, at one of the polling stations, a journalist from “TV Pirveli” journalist, Nato Gogelia, was verbally confronted by agitators from the “Georgian Dream”. They first tried to prevent him from filming by covering his camera with their hands, and then cursed at the journalist. Their irritation followed the journalist’s attempt to find out why they were standing at the polling station with lists and why they were registering voters.
