TV Imedi Report Normalizes Firing of Civil Servant for Protest
Anna Komladze, an employee of the Tbilisi City Hall, was notified on March 5 that she would be dismissed due to “reorganization” as of March 15. Komladze says she and her colleague were “punished” in a civil service purge. Some 400 civil servants said the Georgian Dream fired them due to their political stance as street protests continued.
An open critic of the GD government, Komladze had signed a civil servants’ petition in support of Georgia’s EU integration, protesting the GD’s decision to “pause” the EU accession process. Her social media posts were also scathingly critical of the GD’s recent repressive actions.
TV Imedi, a ruling party’s mouthpiece, framed the news saying Komladze, a “supporter of the radical opposition and an active participant in protest rallies, has been fired.” TV Imedi’s owner, Irakli Rukhadze, has recently said it was the channel’s objective to “never allow the UNM [United National Movement] to return to power.” Rukhadze went on to conflate most of the opposition with UNM.
Simon Janashia, a co-founder of the opposition political platform Freedom Square, wrote, “We have reached the stage where the regime no longer tries to hide its repression” and “openly declares that people with different opinions are enemies.”
Hundreds of officials distanced themselves from the GD’s U-turn from EU accession, and a few have stepped down. In early December 2024, Kobakhidze said the system was “self-purging” and vowed to see this process to its logical end. Shortly after assuming power last December, GD president Mikheil Kavelashvili signed into law the amendments to the country’s civil service law that effectively abolished civil service independence.
Also Read:
- 27/02/2025 – Public Registry Blocks Registration of Civil Servants’ Trade Union
- 28/02/2025 – Dismissals in Ministry of Defense Raise Concerns of Political Purge
- 13/01/2025 – Politically Driven Purge Guts Civil Service
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