Unconfirmed reports suggest that OC Media co-founder and co-director Mariam Nikuradze may have been placed on a list of people to be arrested by the Georgian authorities.

Information about the list, which contains 48 names and their ID numbers, was provided to OC Media by a credible source who claims to have obtained it. The source said that while they were themselves unable to verify its veracity, others on the list, including actor Andro Chichinadze, had already been arrested on criminal charges. 

Local news site Publika also reported having received similar information.

Nikuradze has reported from the ground at each night’s demonstration in Tbilisi since the beginning of the protests against Georgia’s EU U-turn on 28 November. 

During the protests, Nikuradze, like many members of the press, has been targeted by Georgian police. 

On the first night of the demonstrations, she was knocked from a ledge by a water cannon, injuring her leg and destroying her camera. The incident appeared to have been deliberate, with police aiming the water stream away from the protester and towards Nikuradze and other journalists who were filming.

On the night of 1–2 December, riot police attempted to detain Nikuradze as she filmed them making violent arrests. After another officer stated that she was a woman, the arresting officer threw her against a wall, damaging a second camera. 

Her coverage of the latest protests has included documenting widespread abuse by police. Her reporting has been widely shared internationally, while she has frequently spoken to international media including the BBC and CNN about what she has witnessed.

Nikuradze, 33, founded OC Media in 2017 alongside Dominik Cagara. She is a veteran journalist who has been widely recognised for her work.

Last month, Nikuradze won the Lekso Award for her coverage of protests. The award was established in honour of Lekso Lashkarava, the TV Pirveli camera operator who died as the result of the pogrom of journalists on 5 July 2021.

Dominik K Cagara, co-founder and chief financial officer at OC Media, said that if the arrest order was real, it would be another example of the government’s growing authoritarianism.

‘The fact that we have to run this story alongside widespread reports of illegal detentions, police impunity, and torture in police custody only shows the new authoritarian lows that Georgian Dream’s government has reached over the past several days’, Cagara said.

‘OC Media has faced direct pressure from the authorities in the past, when the Speaker of the Parliament asked our institutional donors to stop funding us in revenge for refusing to publish his op-ed. We can only hope now that the information on criminal charges to be pressed against Mariam isn’t accurate, although we have every reason to believe that the list we received is authentic.’

‘Over the years, Mariam’s work has been crucial for documenting the consistent decline of civic rights in Georgia, the shrinking space for media, and decreased safety of journalists’, he said.

News of Nikuradze’s possible pending arrest emerged following the ninth day of protests in Tbilisi and across Georgia. The protests broke out after the government announced they would freeze the country’s EU accession process, despite repeatedly promising they were committed to EU membership. 

It also came in the wake of parliamentary elections during which observers and journalists documented widespread voter fraud and violations of voter secrecy.

The government has responded to the protests with an increasingly violent crackdown on dissent, arresting hundreds of people including opposition leaders, and beating up and torturing detainees.

During the crackdown, several journalists have previously been detained and others attacked and beaten up by police.

In Reporters Without Borders’ 2024 Press Freedom Index, Georgia placed the 5th lowest in Europe, behind only Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan, and Belarus.