In Spring 2024, a delegation from the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) conducted a press freedom fact-finding mission to Tbilisi, Georgia as part of a project funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Throughout the mission, ECPMF met with Georgian journalists and media workers, journalists working in exile in Tbilisi, NGOs, activists, political figures, the National Communications Commission, and the office of the Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia.

Today, ECPMF publishes a report detailing the findings of the mission, which paint a picture of independent media in the midst of an existential crisis.

The mission delegation heard concerns about physical attacks, a lack of sustainable funding for independent media, government targeting of donor organisations, severely restricted access to public information, the use of vexatious lawsuits to target journalists, the exodus of educated media workers in search of a better standard of living, and numerous threats facing exiled journalists working in the country namely those from Russia and Belarus. These issues, coupled with the worrying reintroduction of the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence in April 2024 and a proposed series of bills outlawing LGTBQI propaganda, present a distinctly bleak image for media freedom in Georgia. Despite this, a sizeable group of committed, independent journalists often working for online media continue to withstand the pressure and provide vital information in order to hold power to account in Georgia and across the wider southern Caucasus region. Months of mass protests against the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence further illustrate a broad public rejection of government initiatives to undermine democracy and a free press, as well as a desire to bring Georgia towards European integration, despite waves of violence and intimidation against protestors.

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Georgia: A crisis point for press freedom - European Centre for Press and Media Freedom