OC Media has donated the funds raised through a crowdfunding campaign for Georgian media to Chemi Kharagauli, following cuts to foreign aid spearheaded by US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk.

The GoFundMe campaign, supported by hundreds of individual donors, raised £2,900 ($3,700) in February to ease the financial burden on media outlets struggling to recover financially in the wake of the cuts.

Founded in 1998 in the small western Georgian town of Kharagauli, Chemi Kharagauli has served its local community by producing digital news articles and a print newspaper. The outlet is run by a small team of five.

The founder and editor-in-chief of Chemi Kharagauli, Laura Gogoladze, told OC Media that the support was invaluable and allowed them to compensate their staff. The team had gone several months without pay — with salaries already far below those in the local government jobs.

‘We are always striving to become financially self-sufficient […] But now, under the current conditions, it’s completely impossible’, Gogoladze said.

‘Local business is weak — if it exists at all — and our readers are not wealthy […] Each issue of the newspaper costs ₾1 ($0.36), and we haven’t raised the price in the past ten years […] Since we want to retain our readers, we can’t afford to increase the price’.

Gogoladze emphasised the outlet’s commitment to independence, stating that she has rejected offers to run advertisements that don’t align with their values, and over the years, turned down financial help from politicians who she thought would expect editorial influence in return.

Subscriptions to their newspaper have allowed them to cover the production and basic operational costs, but salaries often relied on foreign aid.

A crippling wave of media shutdowns looms

The Trump–Musk cuts have taken a heavy toll on the media in the Caucasus, where news outlets often rely on foreign assistance for survival. The abrupt withdrawal of funding has left many newsrooms in disarray.

‘The precarity of media funding in the Caucasus is a major impediment to fostering an informed public and holding governments accountable’, Dominik K Cagara, OC Media’s chief financial officer, said.

‘Western donor funding has been the only lifeline for the majority of independent media in our region. The US funding freeze highlights how easily this dependence can be weaponised against us, with catastrophic results for the communities we serve’, he added.

‘I’m proud that we could support our colleagues at Chemi Kharagauli in their mission with funds obtained entirely through crowdfunding, even despite our own financial struggles. At the same time, we continue to advocate for more sustainable funding models as this is the only way to increase the overall resilience of the media in our region’.

The editor-in-chief of Georgian investigative media iFact, Nino Bakradze, who nominated Chemi Kharagauli for the support, stressed the importance of local media in Georgia, whose needs are often overlooked by funders. iFact has worked in the Imereti Region, where Chemi Kharagauli is based, since 2020.

‘Local media and journalists are the people the community sees on the ground, relies on in difficult situations, and turns to for information. In a country where disinformation and propaganda are so powerful and the government is actively trying to demonise the media, people in the regions must see media representatives and witness the impact of their work’, Bakradze said.

‘This helps bridge the gap between society and the media, reducing alienation and ensuring that people turn to trusted, ethical journalism rather than disinformation channels for information’, she added.

The sentiment was echoed by Gogoladze. Despite the highly precarious economic situation in Kharagauli, she said, local residents paid for the Chemi Kharagauli newspaper because the newsroom pursued local issues until they were addressed by the local government.

Georgia’s first crowdfunding campaign for media needs

OC Media and its partners set up the GoFundMe campaign in the spring of last year, amidst the months-long anti-foreign agent law protests that swept Tbilisi.

The campaign was initially used to pay for safety equipment, including helmets and gas masks, to protect journalists from police violence.

In May 2024, Reporters Without Borders ranked Georgia 103rd out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index — a sharp drop from its position at 77 in 2023.

In the following months, unprecedented violence against media workers by law enforcement officers was recorded. Transparency International Georgia stated in 2024 that ‘around 200 cases of verbal and physical violence against media representatives, as well as various forms of intimidation and attempts to silence them, have been recorded, 80% of which have occurred since the end of October’.

The fund was revived several times — ahead of the rigged parliamentary elections in October of 2024, and again during the renewed wave of anti-government and pro-EU protests that erupted after the government announced plans to halt the EU integration process.

‘In the past year, journalists have been the targets of police brutality and excessive force while covering protests. During the November–December protests alone, over 100 incidents of journalists being injured were recorded’, Mariam Nikuradze, OC Media’s Co-director, said.

‘Despite growing aggression towards the media, many newsrooms were unprepared to equip their journalists with adequate safety gear. News about our security fund spread very quickly. Gas masks and helmets were the most requested items’.

The GoFundMe fund allowed OC Media to equip dozens of media workers.

The campaign remains active and continues to support independent media outlets as new needs arise. Supporters can still contribute by following the link.

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