On January 12, the POSTV program “Analytica” aired a report titled “The Criminal Chronology of Criminal Mzia Amaghlobeli,” which employs stigmatizing and discrediting language against journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli, the founder of the publications Batumelebi and Netgazeti.
The report is built on a narrative suggesting that the ongoing protest processes in the country are managed by the so-called “Global War Party.” In this context, emphasis is placed on alleged violence by protesters against the police. The segment reinforces this narrative by portraying Mzia Amaghlobeli as “one of the figures in a script drafted by the Global War Party.” Furthermore, it uses an incident involving a police officer to solidify her stigmatization, depicting her as an assailant and an aggressor against law enforcement. The report ignores the broader context and other significant circumstances.
Overall, the segment creates a sharply biased narrative in which the police are cast in the role of the victim, while the journalist is presented as a figure posing a threat to society. Such rhetoric is part of a systemic trend of discredit against Mzia Amaghlobeli and facilitates the deliberate manipulation of public opinion against her.
On January 12, 2025, Mzia Amaghlobeli was arrested on charges of assaulting a police officer for slapping the head of the Batumi Police, Irakli Dgebuadze. On August 6, 2025, the court sentenced her to two years in prison, while the charge was reclassified from “assault on a police officer” to “resistance, threat, or violence against a protector of public order.” Numerous international and local organizations have condemned Amaghlobeli’s imprisonment and called for her release. She is considered a political prisoner.
On January 12, during a public comment, Kakha Kaladze verbally insulted a journalist from the TV company TV Pirveli. The incident followed a question posed by the journalist regarding the presence at the port of Kulevi of a vessel marked as part of the so-called “shadow fleet” and the risk of secondary sanctions being imposed on the country.
The mayor’s response to the journalist’s question contained offensive statements, including accusations that the journalist was lying and attempting to mislead the public. Despite the journalist’s efforts to obtain serious answers and relevant evidence, Kaladze continued to make insulting remarks.
Such rhetoric toward critical media outlets is systemic in nature and is regularly used by representatives of “Georgian Dream,” which significantly harms the environment for journalistic activity, especially when covering issues of high public interest.
On January 8, 2026, the website of the news agency CNews went offline. When attempting to access the site, a message appeared stating, “Disconnected due to outstanding debt.” On the same day, employees of the agency and of the newspaper Kronika Plus (which share the same founder) were unable to enter the editorial office building, as they found that the door lock had been changed.
The founder of the outlets, Eliso Kiladze, blamed the incident on her former business partner, who is also the owner of the business center where the newsrooms are located. According to her, the website had no outstanding debts, and its shutdown could have been carried out by the former business partner, who had access to the site. Eliso Kiladze linked the problem to a dispute with her former business partner and described it as an act of retaliation.
The organization “Journalistic Ethics Charter” called on the relevant authorities to promptly look into the incident and to “immediately ensure that the journalistic staff of CNews and the newspaper Kronika Plus are granted access to their workplace, that their computers are not damaged, and that unauthorized individuals do not gain access to the information stored on their electronic devices.”
The TV channel Euronews Georgia is changing its format and, starting in 2026, will no longer cover news from Georgia. In an official statement, the channel linked this decision to financial resources.
“Analysis of the financial situation revealed that, given the trends in the television advertising market in Georgia, the current broadcasting model of the channel cannot generate sufficient financial resources to cover the channel’s operating expenses and the financial obligations under the franchise agreement with Euronews SA. Considering the above factors, a decision has been made, within the company’s strategic development framework, to transition the channel to a new format,” the statement said.
According to the same statement, under the updated model, the main focus will be on international content adapted for the Georgian audience.
Euronews Georgia was founded in 2019 by the international channel Euronews and its partner Silknet. The chairman of Silknet’s supervisory board is businessman Giorgi Ramishvili. The channel began broadcasting in Georgia in 2020. In the past two years, seven media outlets in Georgia have ceased operations for various reasons.
Gia Gachechiladze, a supporter of “Georgian Dream” and host of the show “Ai Ucnobi” referred to Mzia Amaghlobel, founder of Netgazeti/Batumelebi and journalist, using insulting epithets.
“I would also punch Mzia Amaghlobeli and throw her out; she pretends to be a media luminary, not a Sakharov Prize winner, but just an ordinary abuser,” said Gia Gachechiladze. Gachechiladze is known for making offensive statements against independent non-governmental organizations and journalists.
Mzia Amaghlobeli was first detained administratively on January 11, 2025, and a few hours later, on January 12, was taken into criminal custody. On August 6, 2025, the Batumi City Court sentenced the journalist to two years in prison, a decision later upheld by the Kutaisi Court of Appeal.
From January 1, 2026, a new rule for issuing one-time special accreditation came into effect, according to which the head of the apparatus makes a decision on granting special accreditation no later than 5 working days from the submission of the application. The one-time special accreditation is a mechanism that allows journalists who do not hold parliamentary accreditation to enter the Parliament of Georgia and carry out their professional activities for a specific purpose.
Considering the operational nature of media work, this deadline may create practical difficulties for journalists in terms of timely coverage of ongoing events in Parliament. The issue gains additional significance in the context where the current regulations already set quantitative limits on accredited parliamentary journalists based on the type of media outlet. For example, for online publications, the maximum number of parliamentary accreditations is set at 4 journalists. This change negatively affects the efficiency of media work and creates additional barriers to accessing information in Parliament.
From the perspective of “Georgian Dream,” the imposition of additional restrictions on journalists in the Parliament building is related to the approval of the accreditation rules for media in the Parliament of Georgia on February 6, 2023. Among other provisions, the accreditation rules stipulate that video and photo recording of sessions is allowed only with the permission of the session chairperson, a journalist must stop an interview if the respondent refuses, and the head of the apparatus has the authority to restrict the access, movement, or placement of equipment of accredited journalists based on the “specificity of the event” or “security regime.” These criteria are not specified in the document, which creates a risk of broad discretion. Violations of the rules may result in suspension of accreditation for one to six months.
These regulations have been criticized by the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, which assesses that such norms negatively affect the ability to obtain and provide information to the public. Practice has shown that the media accreditation rules have been repeatedly used in the context of restricting the activities of independent journalists.
On December 26, 2025, the Public Broadcaster dismissed director Kakha Melikidze from his position. Kakha Melikidze had been working at the First Channel of the Public Broadcaster since 1998.
According to information from the “Guardians of the Public Broadcaster,” the harassment of Kakha Melikidze by the broadcaster’s management began after the director publicly exposed the leadership, stating that they were pressuring him to frequently show officials from “Georgian Dream,” including Irakli Kobakhidze, during broadcasts of the national football team’s matches.
In 2025, the Public Broadcaster also dismissed the host of “Real Space,” journalist Nino Zautashvili, along with other staff members of the program, due to their critical stance. In addition, the anchor of the news program “Moambe,” Vasil Ivanov-Chikovani, was dismissed. On July 30, the segment “People from History” and the program “This Weekend” were also shut down.
The First Channel of the Georgian Public Broadcaster did not renew the employment contract of Anna Metreveli, the assistant producer of the radio programs “Midday Peak” and “Evening Peak,” an employee who had criticized the channel’s editorial policy.
On December 9, 2025, the Tbilisi Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Tbilisi City Court in the defamation case brought by former Minister of Internal Affairs of “Georgian Dream,” Aleksandre Chikaidze, against the television company TV Pirveli and journalist Sopho Niauri. The dispute concerns a report aired on TV Pirveli in the program “Nodar Meladze’s Saturday,” in which Chikaidze was accused of having links to so-called call centers. The Court of Appeal ordered the television company and the journalist to issue a retraction of the information disseminated about Aleksandre Chikaidze and to pay moral damages in the amount of 10,000 lari.
It is particularly problematic that in such a dispute the journalist was considered a proper defendant, which contradicts the Law “On Freedom of Speech and Expression,” according to which, in defamation cases related to content published by a journalist in the media, the defendant is the media owner. Such an approach is the result of incorrect judicial practice that has taken root in recent years and creates a precedent harmful to media freedom.
This judicial practice is developing against the backdrop of amendments to the Law on Freedom of Speech and Expression, which “Georgian Dream” adopted under an expedited procedure on June 26. The amendments shifted the burden of proof to the defendant, abolished important mechanisms for the protection of journalists, including guarantees for source protection and the so-called qualified privilege, and increased the risks of legal pressure against the media and critical voices.
This is not the first instance of legal proceedings initiated against critical media on the grounds of defamation. According to the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, in recent years 28 lawsuits have been filed against three leading critical television channels—Mtavari Arkhi, Formula, and TV Pirveli—most of which were initiated by representatives of the ruling party and individuals close to them. In the organization’s assessment, such cases bear the hallmarks of SLAPP litigation and point to a coordinated trend aimed at intimidating critical media.
During the hearing on December 17 of the so-called “October 4 case,” involving 13 detained individuals, Tbilisi City Court Judge Tamar Makharoblidze stated in court, in response to television journalists’ request to briefly leave the courtroom for a live broadcast, that if the journalists left, they would not be allowed to return. According to her explanation, media representatives could cover the trial only after its conclusion. All 13 individuals are charged with group violence and attempting to seize or block a strategic facility the President’s Palace.
Journalists have stated that, under conditions where photography and video recording are prohibited in court, leaving the courtroom effectively deprives them of the opportunity to follow the proceedings and provide the public with complete information. This is particularly problematic in multi-hour, all-day hearings, where leaving the courtroom during the trial means missing the remainder of the proceedings entirely.
According to media representatives, against the backdrop of already limited resources, this practice makes it virtually impossible for journalists to cover court proceedings of public interest effectively.
The current practice of media coverage of court proceedings is linked to amendments to the Organic Law “On Common Courts,” adopted on June 26 under an expedited procedure. These amendments significantly restricted media access to court hearings, including banning photography and video recording within court buildings and abolishing the previously existing special coverage regime for broadcasters.
On December 14, 2025, a segment aired on the TV program Imedi Weekly on the television company Imedi, accusing independent Georgian media and non-governmental organizations of advancing foreign countries’ interests and engaging in so-called “hybrid warfare.”
The segment addressed a journalistic investigatigation published by the BBC, which reported that during the dispersal of protests in Georgia in November–December 2024, law enforcement allegedly used the toxic chemical compound bromobenzyl cyanide (“Camite”), which, according to the BBC investigation, was mixed into water cannons.
In the Imedi Weekly segment, the BBC investigation is presented as part of a pre-planned and coordinated campaign, which, according to the segment’s authors, involved “propaganda media networks” and “influence agents.” The program described the BBC’s journalistic investigation as a “continuation of hybrid warfare.” Particular attention in the segment was given to the so-called “media network,” which pro-government media accused of advancing foreign interests, as well as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, whose journalistic materials published in January 2025 regarding alleged poisoning incidents were interpreted as if they were deliberately preparing the ground for subsequent BBC investigative reporting.
A coalition of 22 independent media organizations united in August 2024 under the initiative “Sinatle Media” to collect financial resources and continue their work. The cooperation among these media organizations is linked to restrictive legislative regulations imposed on independent media and the NGO sector. Against a backdrop of strong public support and solidarity, Sinatle Media and its member organizations have repeatedly been targets of public criticism and attempts at discreditation by the “Georgian Dream” party.
