Silence is Not Always Gold

It’s December 24. I have got six fresh Georgian newspapers including the Georgian Times, Rezonansi, Alia, Akhali Taoba, 24 Hours and Sakartvelos Respublika on my desk. I have looked through them several times and I am rather frustrated. -  Why? -  I am going to tell you right now! Yesterday the appeal by the Inclusive Foundation, a well known Georgian LGBT organisation was disseminated through Facebook. According to the release on December 15, 2009 at 19:00 the office of the Inclusive Foundation was raided by strangers. The intruders verbally insulted and leveled threats against the Inclusive staff. The strangers, Inclusive Foundation found out, were policemen even though they provided neither any ID documents nor the search warranty. Following the search Paata Sabelashvili, co-head of the organization was detained charged with possessing cannabis. Inclusive Foundation is the first organization in Georgia protecting the rights of sexual minorities and fights against homophobia in the country. The organization runs a bilingual Website. In addition the organization publishes a bilingual quarterly magazine Me also covering the LGTB issue. The newspapers I have got on my desk haven’t yet covered the aforementioned case. The cover pages of some of the editions feature Okruashvili armed with a rifle, some of them portray an announcement Ballet Company to Dance Nutcracker for New Years. The aforementioned event was covered by social networks and Georgian blogs only. Newspapers keep silence. I haven’t watched TV news outlets today but I am sure they too would refrain from covering the issue. Today press is considered as the most free means of media in Georgia. But eventually no one knows how to use this freedom. I have just recollected one of the "interviews" with my respondent telling me the following: Georgian journalists don’t know how to work in the free environment, as soon as they are provided freedom they fall into stress. The biggest problem the Georgian journalists face, my respondent said, is a stereotypical way of thinking.

I didn’t think of being convinced of the correctness of my respondent’s statement so soon. Should be the attention of Georgian media attracted to the raid of either any political party or editorial office?