On Monday, Georgia imprisoned a notable journalist and the owner of the country’s most popular television station for three and a half years for criticizing the administration of the Black Sea nation.
Nika Gvaramia, an anchor and owner of the pro-opposition Mtavari TV, has been found guilty of endangering the financial interests of a television station he previously ran, according to a Tbilisi municipal court judge.
Gvaramia has also represented Georgia’s ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is serving a six-year prison sentence for abuse of authority, a verdict he has called politically motivated.
Gvaramia stated that his prosecution was intended to silence critical media.
His lawyer Dito Sadzaglishvili said that the verdict was illegal, adding that “Gvaramia was taken into political captivity.”
“Political repressions are underway in Georgia,” he said.
“In democratic countries, journalists are not jailed for their dissenting views.”
Georgia’s prominent TV personalities and managers have long accused the ruling Georgian Dream party’s government of using the judiciary to stifle independent voices.
Human rights organizations have also raised worry about Georgia’s media independence, claiming that the managers and owners of practically all independent TV stations critical of the Georgian government are being investigated.
Nino Lomjaria, Georgia’s rights ombudsperson, and Transparency International announced on Sunday that they had investigated Gvaramia’s case and found no evidence of misconduct.
In October 2015, Gvaramia claimed that a government intermediary threatened to expose covertly recorded footage of his “private life” in an attempt to compel him to quit journalism.
Gvaramia served in Saakashvili’s cabinet from 2007 to 2009, supervising his anti-corruption drive.
Since Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the country’s independent media has frequently clashed with authorities.
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