Freedom of Speech and Equal Access to Information

According to Georgian Constitution:

Article 19

1. Every individual has the right to freedom of speech, thought, conscience, religion and belief.
2. The persecution of an individual for their thought, beliefs or religion is prohibited, as is also the compulsion to express opinions about them.
3. These rights may not be restricted unless the exercise of these rights infringes upon the rights of other individuals.

It is impossible to deny that in Georgia there exist an independent media, but in the majority of cases the truth promoted by a journalist doesn't make a change, as a rule government officials keep ignoring representatives of media and their findings. If it happens and a journalist goes a bridge too far he/she may get threatened or beaten up. The latter was the case with the "Eco-Digest" journalist V. Silagadze, who was writing an article concerning the corruption in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was beaten up very seriously twice in summer and autumn of 2000. He was threatened that if he doesn't stop writing his foolish articles they would cut his right arm so he would not be able to write at all. Of course there has started a case in the Prosecutor General's Office but the wrongdoers are not caught yet.

It needs to be mentioned that the lack of legislation in many ways supports the violation of human rights. For instance, the President Shevardndze himself gave a direct order to punish journalists that insult the government, its honor and dignity. At the same time he asked the Ministry of Justice to prepare the law on the press that will serve as a tool to fight bothering and impolite reports of journalists. This announcement caused negative resonance among the representatives of independent media and after their reaction the President changed his position and declared that he wanted this law to guarantee freedom of speech and to defend the security of media representatives.

As it was mentioned above there is a number of independent magazines and newspapers in the country, however the lack of serious and objective periodicals becomes more and more evident. Unfortunately, some of the publications tend to become yellow while others try to lobby the interests of certain financial or political groups in order to survive on the market and to reaffirm their positions.

The new administrative code of Georgia obliges all state officials to give out any public information officially requested if the information is not classified. According to the law every interested individual is to receive requested information within 3 days, but if an official needs special efforts to collect this information the limit is prolonged to 10 days. Many journalists and NGOs have already started to use this law but the officials on their end are not enthusiastic and supportive in giving out the information. If an official refuses to give out public information the requester is authorized to sue him/her in the court. However this is not practiced by the representatives of civil society, but the current reality suggests that in future the state officials would have serious problems if they refuse to work in the transparent environment. Interesting fact: The representatives of Independent Journalists' Club picketed the building of the Prosecutor General's Office in June 2001. The reason for the protest was that despite a number of requests the Prosecutor General's Office didn't give them documents concerning the examination of several data stated in property declarations of several high rank officials.