On June 4, 2025, Nino Baiduri, a journalist for the online publication Netgazeti, was fined 5,000 GEL by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. She is accused of blocking Rustaveli Avenue on March 21.
The journalist wrote about the fine on the social media platform Facebook, attaching the short text message she received from the Ministry:
“You have been fined under Article 174, Paragraph 5. Date: 21/03/2025. Location: Tbilisi, Rustaveli Avenue, near the Parliament building.”
According to publicly available sources, the Media, Information, and Social Research Center (CMIS) has been documenting cases of journalists fined for blocking roads while covering pro-European protests, based on publicly accessible information, since November 28, 2024.
At a court hearing held on March 12, 2025, Radio Liberty producer Beka Beradze was issued a verbal warning by the court for disobeying police orders.
Beradze was detained on the night of December 1, 2024, during a pro-European protest in Tbilisi, on Ingorokva Street, along with several companions. He was taken to a temporary detention facility in Sagarejo and released 48 hours later without being charged. Visible injuries were observed on Beradze’s face, which, according to Radio Liberty reports, resulted from violence by riot police.
On March 12, 2025, police contacted Beradze to inform him that his court hearing was scheduled to take place within the hour. He was being charged with disobeying a police order. According to Beradze, he and his lawyer were given only one hour to review the case materials.
On March 17, 2025, Formula journalist Nano Chakvetadze was informed by police that she had been fined 5,000 GEL. She is accused of blocking the road on March 13. According to Formula, Chakvetadze was carrying out her professional duties on Rustaveli Avenue that day.
This is not the first time an independent media representative has been unlawfully fined while performing their journalistic work.
On March 17, 2025, Tbilisi City Court held a hearing in the case of Publika reporter Aleksandre Keshelashvili. He had been charged with disobeying police orders; the court issued him a verbal warning.
Keshelashvili was covering a pro-European protest on November 29 of the previous year when police used force to detain and physically assault him. That same night, he was hospitalized with multiple injuries and underwent emergency surgery; he had sustained fractures to his facial bones.
In December, the Publika reporter filed a complaint with the Special Investigation Service, requesting an investigation into the physical violence used against him while performing his professional duties. Despite being officially recognized as a victim in that case, the court still delivered a guilty verdict today and issued him a verbal warning for disobeying police orders.
On March 18, 2025, TV Pirveli photojournalist Giorgi Mosiashvili was issued a fine of 5,000 GEL by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Police accused Mosiashvili of illegally blocking the road on Rustaveli Avenue at 9:03 PM on March 11.
In a Facebook post, Mosiashvili stated that he was carrying out his professional duties on Rustaveli Avenue on March 11.
On March 19, 2025, two more journalists reported on social media that they had been fined on the grounds of “road obstruction.”
Among them was OC Media founder and photographer Mariam Nikuradze, who received two separate fine notices totaling 10,000 GEL. Law enforcement authorities accuse Nikuradze of illegally blocking the road on March 11 and March 15. The journalist plans to appeal both fines.That same day, Radio Tbilisi journalist Merab Merkviladze received notice of a 5,000 GEL fine. He shared the information on his Facebook page.
On March 19, 2025, Judge Tamar Makharoblidze of Tbilisi City Court ordered TV Pirveli journalists Mariam Gaprindashvili and Nanuka Kajaia to leave the courtroom.
The judge made this decision after the journalists inquired why they had not been granted permission to photograph the proceedings — a request they had submitted officially and in accordance with the law.
“The judge did not allow the journalists to finish speaking, told them they were not parties to the case and therefore had no right to speak. She first issued them a warning, and then expelled them from the courtroom,” according to a report by Radio Liberty.
The court session was related to a deliberate murder case that occurred on March 15 on Ilia Chavchavadze Avenue.
On March 23, 2025, it became known that Ani Jobava, a journalist and contributor to the morning program at the Georgian Public Broadcaster — where she had worked for seven years — was removed from on-air duties. The journalist announced the news on social media.
She links the decision to her critical stance toward the channel’s editorial policy.
“Hi, I’m Ani Jobava, a journalist for the Public Broadcaster’s morning show. I was not called in… First they excluded me from meetings, then cut off communication, and that’s how it went for over a month and a half,” Jobava wrote on social media.
Ani Jobava is one of the journalists who signed a staff statement condemning and protesting violence against fellow citizens and colleagues. The statement also called for the broadcaster’s airtime to be used for amplifying public opinion and encouraging open debate.
Similar to Ani Jobava, the broadcaster’s management also removed news anchor Vasil Ivanov-Chikovani from the air. He, too, has been critical of the Public Broadcaster’s editorial direction.
On March 26, 2025, the Parliament of Georgia suspended the accreditation of TV Pirveli journalist Nata Kajaia for six months.
The suspension is related to a report she produced about individuals detained during pro-European protests. Kajaia had approached parliamentary staff for interviews. After being refused, she continued trying to obtain answers from public officials.
“The reaction from Georgian Dream shows that they did not like the segment aired on Saturday, because we told the audience how the persecution is based on falsehoods — in a criminal case involving prisoners of conscience. I approached a parliamentary employee for an interview — the man whose testimony is part of the case against the prisoners of conscience,” Kajaia said in an interview with TV Pirveli.
The incident drew a response from the Media Advocacy Coalition, which stated:
“The regime is systematically abusing independent media. Journalists are being unlawfully obstructed in their professional work. There is a pattern of continuous attacks, intimidation, insults, and disinformation. To this day, no one has been held accountable — neither those who ordered nor those who carried out these systemic crimes.”
The rules for journalist accreditation in the legislature are defined by a decree issued by the Speaker of Parliament on February 6, 2023.
On March 27, 2025, the propagandist TV channel Imedi spread disinformation targeting critically-minded journalists from the Georgian Public Broadcaster — Nino Zautashvili and Vasil Ivanov-Chikovani — accusing them of receiving “illicit income.”
Imedi also accused other critically-inclined journalists from the Public Broadcaster — Guranda Goginashvili, Tukha Kvinikadze, and Tamar Mshvenieradze — of the same. These journalists are part of the program Real Space, hosted by Nino Zautashvili.
The initial report by Imedi claimed that Vasil Ivanov-Chikovani’s wife owned an advertising company. Chikovani responded to the disinformation on social media, accusing the TV station of spreading lies.
Imedi later deleted the information about Chikovani and admitted that they had mistaken the journalist’s wife for another individual. However, the accusations against Nino Zautashvili remain accessible.
It is worth noting that the accusations of “illicit income” against the critically-minded journalists coincided with threats of legal action from the Public Broadcaster’s board of trustees, which is linked to the ruling party Georgian Dream. On March 21, 2025, members of the board of trustees associated with Georgian Dream demanded during a board meeting that the Prosecutor’s Office launch an investigation against journalists Vasil Ivanov-Chikovani and Nino Zautashvili due to their critical stance toward the broadcaster’s editorial policy.
