According to the regional media outlet TOK TV, a cyberattack has been carried out on their official website for the second time in the past two weeks.
“At this time, the site is accessible with glitches, however, when attempting to log into the administrative panel, a message appears stating that the system has been hacked by ‘CoupDeGrace’. At this stage, the technical details are being studied and the full scale of the incident is being assessed,” writes TOK2Region.
As stated by TOK TV, the issue was related to a cyberattack on WordPress and the compromising of the site.
“Modified WordPress Core files, malicious PHP code, unknown Administrator accounts, and arbitrarily added plugins were found in the system, which indicated that the attacker had persistent access / a backdoor to the site. To resolve the problem, suspicious files and plugins were systematically cleared, unknown administrators were deleted, administrator passwords and WordPress security keys were changed, Core files were updated/replaced with clean versions, and the arbitrary addition of new plugins and themes from within WordPress was restricted using the DISALLOW_FILE_MODS parameter,” TOK TV representatives state.
At this stage, the problem has not yet been fully resolved.
On October 4, 2025, on the day of local elections (which were boycotted by a large part of the pro-Western opposition), the chairman of the polling station commission at Akhaltsikhe polling station No. 6 restricted journalist Nuka Stepnadze 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.
On February 27, 2025, the Mayor of Akhaltsikhe, Irakli Lazarishvili, called “TOK TV” journalist Misho Darbaidze a “pest” in response to critical questions.
The incident occurred during a session of the Akhaltsikhe Municipal Council, where deputies were reviewing state procurements carried out in 2024. The journalist’s questions focused on non-transparent (direct) procurement procedures, which appeared to irritate the mayor. He accused Darbaidze of “gossiping” and attempted to discredit him.
On March 26, 2025, journalists were denied entry to a session of the “Civil Advisory Council,” a consultative body of the Akhaltsikhe Municipality City Hall. Journalists from Samkhretis Karibche and TOK TV who arrived at the location were told that they could not enter the public institution because the meeting had already started.
According to Samkhretis Karibche, City Hall has not been providing information about the scheduling of council meetings for months. The media outlet also reports that this information is not being published publicly by the municipality.
On May 8, 2025, the media was not allowed into a public session at the Samtskhe-Javakheti State Administration, where the new governor was being introduced. This information was reported by TOK2Region.
Former governor of Samtskhe-Javakheti, Besik Amiranashvili, was replaced by Zaal Gelashvili on May 8.
Closing public hearings to independent media is a general trend, and the ruling party “Georgian Dream” has employed this tactic multiple times in the past.
