Stalin in rehab – part 2
Index on Censorship’s associate editor Rohan Jayasekera has just come back from Gori, Georgia — birthplace of Josef Stalin. He didn’t buy the t-shirt though.
Media casualties increase in Georgian conflict
Dutch news cameraman Stan Storimans was killed by Russian bombing in the city of Gori, central Georgia on 12 August. Another Georgian journalist, and his driver, were killed by Russian shells in Gori’s main square in the same offensive, bringing the total number of journalists killed in the six-day conflict to four. Georgian journalists Grigol Chikhladze and Alexander Klimchuk were shot dead on Sunday by pro-independence fighters in Tskhinvali, capital of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports at least 9 journalists have been wounded since hostilities commenced.
Journalists killed in South Ossetia
Georgian journalists Grigol Chikhladze and Alexander Klimchuk were shot dead on Sunday by pro-independence fighters in South Ossetia. They had been traveling with Teimuraz Kikuradze and US journalist Winston Federley when they came across a road block in Tskhinvali, capital of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. Ossetian forces opened fire when the journalists attempted to avoid the roadblock. Chikhladze and Klimchuk were killed outright, whilst Kikuradze and Federley were injured in the attack. Chikhladze had been head of Alinia TV and Kikuradze a correspondent for Itar-Tas.
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Georgia: media under pressure after protests
Journalists in Georgia have felt the heat during recent upheaval in the former soviet state. Here, Winston Bean tells of the conditions he and his colleagues have faced in recent days
Earlier this week, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili decreed a state of emergency after the violent dispersal of anti-government protests, ordering the shutdown of independent media outlets and deploying troops throughout the capital.
While the government’s crackdown succeeded in restoring order in a country still recovering from years of civil conflict, the ruling administration’s reputation for liberal reform has been irreparably damaged, as it enforces emergency rule and a news blackout at the same time a snap election campaign gets under way.
The anti-government rallies, organised by a tenuous coalition of 10 political opposition parties, began on 2 November with tens of thousands of Georgians calling for earlier parliamentary elections. They soon progressed to angry but peaceful demands for Saakashvili’s resignation.
The protests unravelled into bloody street battles across the capital’s centre on 7 November, as riot police moved in to break up the crowds with tear gas, rubber bullets and batons.