On October 19, Vakho Sanaia, a journalist and TV presenter for the TV company Formula, was detained. He is accused of blocking a road, and the Tbilisi City Court sentenced him to six days of administrative detention.
That same day, police also arrested several other participants of the rally, accusing them of blocking the road and covering their faces during the protest. The ruling Georgian Dream party recently tightened legislation, replacing fines with imprisonment for concealing one’s face at rallies.
The Media Advocacy Coalition condemned the journalist’s arrest, calling it “a gross violation of media freedom and freedom of speech.”
On October 17, the security guards of the TV “Pirveli” did not allow the camera crew to move around the area surrounding the residential building of Otar Partskhaladze and interfered with their activities.
Due to high public interest, the journalist tried to film the situation near the house of former Prosecutor General Otar Partskhaladze, but the security guards on site stepped forward and did not allow the journalist to approach the house, at which time they restricted the possibility of filming.
On the same day, the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia held a briefing, where acting Prosecutor Giorgi Gvarakidze stated that searches were conducted in the homes of former Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili, former Head of the State Security Service Grigol Liluashvili, and former Prosecutor General Otar Partskhaladze. The Prosecutor’s Office has not specified under which articles the investigation is ongoing, whether the case is related to a new investigation, and whether the arrest of former high-ranking officials is planned.
The Public Relations Department of the Georgian Patriarchate announced that on October 14, due to a violation of internal regulations, the film crews of the TV companies “TV Pirveli” and “Formula” will not be accredited for the upcoming church holidays.
“Today, October 14, for violating the internal regulations in the courtyard of the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, under the pretext of journalistic activity, despite repeated warnings, and for arbitrarily leaving the space allocated for the press, the film crews of TV Pirveli and TV Formula will not be accredited for the upcoming church holidays,” the statement said.
The Patriarchate has imposed additional regulations for the media since 2022. Journalists need to obtain special accreditation to cover church events, and they can only work in zones specially designated for the media.
On October 9, 2025, the Communications Commission issued a written warning to the television broadcasters “Formula” and “Formula Multimedia”, as well as the radio broadcasters “Journalists’ Union Khalkis Khma”, “Radio-TV Nori” and “Systema Gama” and ordered them to cease receiving funding from foreign powers for violating the Law of Georgia “On Broadcasting”.
According to the Commission’s statement: “Based on the fact that the broadcasters have received the above-mentioned funding after the law was amended and funding from foreign powers was prohibited, and the funding cannot be used in exceptional cases specified by law (commercial advertising, teleshopping, sponsorship or product placement in the program)”, the Commission considered the broadcasters to be violators of the law.
This is the first precedent for the enforcement of the law, which concerns the new regulation included in the Law on Broadcasting, which prohibits direct or indirect funding of a broadcaster from a foreign power from April 1, 2025. Since the date of adoption, the amendments have caused public discussion and criticism, in particular, assessments that the new norm may become a tool for restricting the financial and editorial freedom of independent media. During the session, representatives of radio broadcasters noted that without the aforementioned funding, they may have to stop broadcasting.
On October 5, the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that the October 4 gathering “aimed at overthrowing the government” and “soon acquired an unlawful character,” after which the ministry took “proportionate measures.” According to the agency, “based on yesterday’s events,” any gathering from October 5 will be considered a “continuation of an attempted overthrow” and the ministry will take appropriate measures “to protect public order and security.” In effect, this means that peaceful protesters may face legal prosecution simply for participating in the gathering. The statement came after the arrest of five organizers of the October 4 rally and a few hours before the announcement of a new rally by citizens and the Federalist Party.
Such rhetoric threatens both freedom of assembly and expression and freedom of the media. The wording used by the Ministry creates a vague legal framework, under which journalists’ coverage of protests or voicing critical positions may be perceived as support for an “attempted coup.” Such a statement creates a chilling effect and violates the activities of the media and the right of the public to freely receive and disseminate information, which contradicts fundamental rights guaranteed by both the Constitution of Georgia and international conventions.
On October 10, 2025, Tbilisi City Court Judge Meia Melkadze dismissed the lawsuit of Vasil Ivanov-Chikovani, a former employee of the Public Broadcaster’s First Channel and host of the program “Moambe”. Vasil Ivanov-Chikovani appealed his dismissal from service in court. He requested the cancellation of the dismissal order, reinstatement in service, and compensation for his severance pay. After the submission of the reasoned part of the verdict, the plaintiff will appeal the decision of the City Court to the Court of Appeal.
Vasil Ivanov-Chikovani was dismissed from the Public Broadcaster on April 11, 2025, along with journalist Nino Zautashvili, host of the program “Real Space”. The official reason for his dismissal was a disciplinary investigation. Both journalists are involved in the movement “Guardians of the Public Broadcaster,” which criticizes the broadcaster’s management decisions, its editorial policy, and speaks out about political influences within the broadcaster.
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.
