Press Watchdog Concerned over Pressure on Media
The Vienna-based International Press Institute, which unites editors, media executives and leading journalists from over 120 countries, sent a letter to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili expressing deep concern “about the pressure applied by the Georgian authorities on mass media since the November “Rose Revolution.”
The press watchdog urges Saakashvili “to authorize an immediate and thorough investigation” into the cases of pressure on journalists and “to do everything in your power to create a media environment that allows journalists to exercise their profession free of harassment and violence.”
The International Press Institute also stressed “the situation for the media in the Ajaria Autonomous Republic has also deteriorated.”
The group of MPs has recently set up a special commission, which will investigate the suspected facts of government’s pressure on the independent televisions.
Recently, two leading television stations – Rustavi 2 and Mze – simultaneously stopped broadcasting of the popular political talks shows, which were on air every night except the weekends that sparked rumors over the possible pressure on the TV companies from the authorities on the eve of parliamentary elections.
