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.
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.
