While covering the protest on October 4, 2025, the online media outlet Mauwkebeli lost its drone. “The drone suddenly malfunctioned during filming, as happened with other media outlets,” a journalist from Mauwkebeli told MediaChecker.
Project 64 and Netgazeti also lost control of their drones that day.
At the October 4, 2025 rally, “Netgazeti” lost its drone. According to the information released by the publication, they lost their drone on Rustaveli Avenue. “Netgazeti’s” drones, as well as those of other media outlets, were allegedly specially shot down on Rustaveli Avenue, where we were trying to film the demonstration,” the publication said in the information released.
On the same day, “Project 64” and “Mauwkebeli” lost their drones too.
Project 64 lost its drone camera during the October 4, 2025 rally. Project 64 founder and journalist Giorgi Gogua wrote on social media that the camera was filming near the parliament building when it suddenly started flying erratically and lost control.
“I was only controlling the direction of the camera, but I couldn’t control the trajectory of the drone. The last shot before the signal was lost was somewhere from Rustaveli to Mtatsminda. The flight history on the map shows that the drone flew towards the airport.”
On the same day, the media outlets Netgazeti and Mauwyebeli lost control of their drones.
While covering the October 4, 2025 rally, according to information released by the Public Broadcaster, a protester allegedly threw an “unknown liquid” at the news program’s “Moambe” crew, resulting in injuries to journalist Shalva Sumbadze and cameraman Nika Tsirekidze.
TV Pirveli cameraman Niko Kokaia was injured twice while covering the October 4, 2025 rally. The first incident, as the TV company reports, occurred on Atoneli Street, near the President’s Residence. Kokaia became incapacitated after the Special Tasks Department fired gas canisters. He required emergency medical assistance.
The second incident occurred on Orbeliani Square. According to the TV company, the cameraman was allegedly hit in the leg by a gas canister.
On October 4, 2025, while covering a protest rally in Tbilisi, Radio Liberty journalist Giorgi Diasamidze was physically and verbally assaulted by police.
In a video released by the outlet, Diasamidze can be heard telling a law enforcement officer that he is a journalist and asking why his work is being obstructed. Despite showing his press credentials, he was still targeted and attacked by the officer.
A tear gas capsule was allegedly fired at the TV Pirveli camera crew, journalist Irakli Bakhtadze, and his cameraman. The incident occurred while they were broadcasting live from the Presidential Palace on Orbeliani Square.
In the video footage released by the TV company, the sound of tear gas being fired and capsule exploding capsule can be heard in the area where the TV Pirveli camera crew was working. According to the Charter of Journalistic Ethics, the capsule hit the journalist’s helmet. At that time, the protesters had already left the surrounding area. There was no prior warning before the shots were fired. The journalist and cameraman were not injured.
On October 4, 2025, during a large-scale protest in Tbilisi, two criminal police officers attempted to interfere with Studio Monitor journalist Keti Tutberidze’s work and seize her phone.
The incident occurred when the journalist was trying to film the arrest of citizens. “Squad units rushed to Orbeliani Square to arrest two citizens, one of whom was Irakli Tsulaia. “I was filming and two criminal police officers rushed at me, screaming, grabbing my hand and trying to take my phone,” Tutberidze wrote in a post.
On October 4, 2025, on the day of the local government elections (which were boycotted by a large part of the pro-Western opposition), agitators from the Georgian Dream, Nato Gogelia, verbally confronted a journalist from TV Pirveli at one of the polling stations in Batumi. 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.
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.
