Georgia jails prominent critical journalist

Georgia on Monday jailed for three and a half years a prominent journalist and owner of the country’s most popular television station critical of the Black Sea nation’s government.

Nika Gvaramia, an anchor and owner of the pro-opposition Mtavari TV, was found guilty of harming financial interests of a television station he had earlier run, a judge of the Tbilisi city court said.

Gvaramia has also been a lawyer of Georgia’s ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili who is serving a six-year jail term for abuse of power — a conviction he has denounced as politically-motivated.

Gvaramia has said his case was aimed at silencing critical media.

His lawyer Dito Sadzaglishvili said that the verdict was illegal, adding that “Gvaramia was taken into political captivity.”

“Political repressions are under way in Georgia,” he said.

“In democratic countries, journalists are not jailed for their dissenting views.”

Georgia’s prominent TV personalities and managers have long accused the ruling Georgian Dream party’s government of using the judiciary to stifle independent voices.

Rights groups have also expressed concern over media freedom in Georgia, saying managers and owners of nearly all independent TV stations critical of the Georgian government are under investigation.

Georgia’s rights ombudsperson, Nino Lomjaria, and Transparency International said Sunday they had studied Gvaramia’s case and found no proof of wrongdoing.

In October 2015, Gvaramia said a government middleman had threatened to release secretly-recorded videos showing what he described as his “private life” in an attempt to force him to quit journalism.

In 2007-2009, Gvaramia held several government posts in Saakashvili’s cabinet, overseeing his anti-corruption crusade.

Independent media in Georgia has often had fraught relations with authorities since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.