Tbilisi International Conference Discussed Freedom of Expression in South Caucasian States

On July 3 Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Tbilisi hosted an international conference on freedom of media and expression. The representatives of Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani media organizations, human rights watchdogs, as well as the spokespersons of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation, EU delegation to Georgia, Netherlands Helsinki Committee, Georgian Public Defender's office and the Supreme Court took part in the conference.

The conference was organized by the domestic NGO Article 42 of the Constitution and the Human Rights Center. Both organizations are the members of the South Caucasian Network of Human Rights Defenders which embraces 30 human rights NGOs based in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The aforementioned conference was held within the Strategic Jurisprudence in Georgia project.

The conference was divided into several parts. In the course of the first session the situation in the Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani media was reviewed. Georgian media pundit Zviad Koridze emphasized several aspects when discussing problems in the Georgian journalism.

According to him the most significant issue in the electronic media is financial non-transparency and unclear ownership of TV channels.

"For the last six years Rustavi 2 management and accordingly its owner has been changed for four times though the actual owners of the TV company remained undisclosed to the public. In other countries when the authorities own means of media everyone is aware of it but in Georgia it's a skeleton in the cupboard," Zviad Koridze stressed.

The quality of editorial independence, he added, is also of high importance. The problem is due to media owners and the journalists who fail to adhere to professional standards and norms of ethics and tacitly follow their managers' directives.

The distribution-related problems, "polarized advertising market" and population's lack of ability to buy press also hinder the press development, Zviad Koridze added.

The media situation in Armenia was reviewed by Levon Barsagyan, Armenia-based journalists' club Asparezi. Armenian media, he said, is under the pressure of authorities, according to him. Censorship and self-censorship aggravates in the course of elections. None of the attacks against journalists has been investigated. According to Levon Barsagyan only 11% of the Armenian population has access to Internet which thwarts online dissemination of press materials.

Emin Huseynov of the Baku-based Institute of Freedom and Security of Reporters made a speech about media in Azerbaijan. Following Ilham Aliyev's presidency, he stressed, the situation in media has considerably deteriorated. The Monitor magazine editor Elmar Huseynov has been killed, the murderers are still at large. Many journalists are behind bars as political prisoners. They are restricted to broadcast through Radio Liberty and BBC local frequencies, all the TV channels are being controlled by the authorities.

"During his seven years of presidency Ilham Aliyev has granted only two interviews in total, exceptionally to the governmental channels only. All TV channels are owned by the President's relatives. There is the only opposition newspaper, none of the print editions are neutral. Talk shows never invite opposition representatives," Emin Huseiynov said.

In the course of the conference the role of court in protecting information and freedom of expression was discussed too. Video stories featuring the interference into journalists' professional activities and physical abuse against media workers were screened. In addition the conference participants were shown video material about applying tear gas against journalists during the November 7, 2007 protest rally and sniper wound of Tamar Urushadze of the GPB First Channel reporter during Russian-Georgian war in August 2008. One of the stories screened at the conference featured the police beating journalist Gohar Veziryan during the October 23, 2007 protest rally in Yerevan.

In the course of the conference Tina Goletiani of the Public Defender's office of Georgia emphasized several moments typical to the Georgian reality - when committing a crime against journalists criminal suits are not being lodged according to the relevant Article 154, but instead the cases are qualified as hooliganism.

At the final session of the conference the representatives of donor organizations recommended the members of the South Caucasian Network of Human Rights Defenders to be more active and work on the elaboration of new projects.

"Protection of freedom of speech and expression is of high importance to us since that's the indicator of democracy. Therefore we urge you to write substantiated projects and we are going to fund them," Oliver Reisner of the EU delegation to Georgia pointed out.

"None of the individual organizations have got resources to overcome the problems in media, therefore network activities is significant, that we are going to carry on," said Ana Natsvlishvili, coordinator in Georgia, South Caucasian Network of Human Rights Defenders.

At the end of the event the participants discussed the strategies of media protection. They agreed on working out a set of recommendations in this regard.