Review
Review | Street Life — the cold drone of Georgia’s long winter protest
Natalie Beridze’s Street Life turns Georgia’s protests into an oppressive soundscape, capturing both the exhaustion and resolve of a movement.
Dominik K Cagara
Dominik transitioned into journalism in 2015 from a career in peacebuilding and project management. At OC Media, he oversees organisational development and fundraising, often sharing his insights on conflict-sensitive terminology and correct transcription from all the numerous languages of the Caucasus.
OC Insider
Decolonising the North Caucasus, one language at a time
Хьоме дешархо (Dear Reader), Much has already been said about the likely closure of RFE/RL and the consequences it will have for the region. However, there is one crucial aspect that I believe deserves more attention: RFE/RL’s decolonial impact. I have been passionate about the languages of the Caucasus for years, and happen to have been studying Chechen since 2009. Chechen is a complex language and it isn’t similar to any other language that I know. Each noun belongs to one of six genders, w
OC Insider
Hey, Trump! Game on.
Dear reader, Trump, Orbán, and Putin’s war on the media has entered a new era. When they failed to destroy us with their big lies, accusations in the mirror, or false balances, they struck where we are most vulnerable — our near-total dependency on philanthropy. My favourite part of founding OC Media was feeling connected to all the brave, uncompromising journalists in the Caucasus. I loved brainstorming stories with our Daghestani journalists, refining conflict-sensitive terminology, or trave
Abkhaz Language
Abkhaz, Avar, Chechen, and Ossetian hit Google Translate
Four previously unavailable languages of the Caucasus — Abkhaz, Avar, Chechen, and Ossetian — have been made available on Google’s translation service. Friday’s addition of 110 new languages was the first time new languages of the Caucasus have been included in Google Translate since May 2010, when Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian were added. It is also the first time the four new languages have been made available through any machine translation service. The addition is the latest step i
European Union
Opinion | Will Georgia follow Poland in the global right-wing revolution?
Many Georgians rushed to blame Russia’s interference for this week’s homophobic violence in Tbilisi. However, Poland’s democratic decline offers a better framework to understand what the future holds for Georgia. When a priest from the Ertatsminda Church, some 50 km west of Tbilisi, found out I was Polish, he became very enthusiastic. He told me he loved the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, for declaring that marriage was a union between man and woman, and for fighting against the ‘LGBT agend
Democracy
Opinion | You can’t counter disinformation without strong media
We’re stuck in a vicious circle of democracy degradation. It’s no wonder that others are trying to exploit it to their dark aims — but it’s a wonder how misunderstood the role of the media is in solving this tangle. In late May, an Armenian website pushing conspiracy theories and lies (‘fake news’) hit the global headlines after an investigation by OpenDemocracy revealed it had mistakenly been financed by the US Government. Although the website wasn’t funded under a countering disinformation
