30-11-2024
Georgia
On November 29-30, During the coverage of the protests 9 members of the media were detained, injured, or obstructed in their professional work
- On November 30, TV Pirveli journalist Mariam Gafrindashvili was seriously injured. According to reports, she lost consciousness several times. The video footage released by the station, shows her bleeding from the forehead before being taken to a medical facility.
- On November 30, TV Pirveli cameraman Papuna Khachidze was physically injured during the protest.
- On the same day, the riot police attacked Ana Mskhaladze, a journalist from the online outlet Publika, while she was performing her professional duties. The officer also took her phone. Mskhaladze explained that she was recording the detention of citizens when the officer knocked the phone out of her hand. When she identified herself as a journalist and bent down to retrieve it, she was struck in the head. The officer then took the phone and disappeared. Her phone is still missing.
- During the protest near the Parliament building on November 30, special forces attacked RealPolitika journalist Aka Zarqua. ‘About ten special forces officers surrounded and beat me until they got tired. I won’t even mention the verbal abuse. At one point, their commander arrived and tried to shove my press badge into my mouth. Fortunately, they didn’t manage to seize my phone, and the live stream remains on RealPolitika’s page. The video captures one instance of the physical assault, though my phone was in my pocket during the second, so it wasn’t recorded. They also confiscated my respirator. Thankfully, I was wearing a helmet,’ Zarqua wrote.
- Photographer Giorgi Gamgebeli was also physically assaulted on November 30. He was hospitalized, and his equipment was confiscated and destroyed. ‘They broke my leg, beat me, ripped the camera from me, and took it away. People barely managed to drag me to an ambulance,’ the photographer reported.
- On November 30, Formula TV reported that special forces attacked a journalist Nutsa Bakhutashvili and her cameraman Irakli Bartava. According to the network, Bakhutashvili sustained a concussion.
- The cameramen of Georgian Public Broadcaster First Channel Davit Bejanishvili was injured during the protest on November 30.
- According to Paper Kartuli, on November 30, a masked man, presumably a law enforcement officer, struck journalist Fyodor Khudokormov with his hand.
30-11-2024
9
Damage to equipment | Detention/Arrest | Physical injury | Physical violence
Georgia