OC Media
A protest in Tbilisi in April 2017 against early marriages. Photo: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.
Child marriage is a persistent problem in Georgia, one with social, psychological, physical, and economic costs to both the women affected and Georgian society. New research from CRRC Georgia suggests that interventions in the education system could help alleviate at least the latter of these. [Read more…]
Salome Zurabishvili (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
According to a recent poll by National Democratic Institute (NDI), 59% of the population think that there is no democracy in Georgia. In other indicators as well, the Georgian government is facing significant downturn in popularity. [Read more…]
Zurab Popkhadze in court. Photo: Prosecutor's Office.
Zurab Popkhadze, a high-ranking Georgian police official, pleaded guilty to beating and killing 24-year-old Murad Tsurtsumia, who, according to local media, ‘was stripped naked and left alone in the cold near a cemetery in Tbilisi’. The family of the victim said the deceased also had his eye gouged out. [Read more…]
Giorgi Mamaladze (Georgian Public Broadcaster)
Georgian president Salome Zurabishvili has refused to pardon Giorgi Mamaladze, a controversial archpriest convicted of plotting the murder of Shorena Tetruashvili, the secretary of Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church Ilia II, in September 2017. [Read more…]
Nona Bukia has been running the Khurcha branch of the Sokhumi Fund for 11 years. Photo: Tamuna Chkareuli/OC Media
Nona Bukia, 67, lives in Khurcha, a village bordering Abkhazia on the western side of the River Enguri (Ingur). Bukia, who has headed the local branch of women’s rights group the Sukhumi Fund, believes domestic violence and an increase in other social problems is directly connected to the increased poverty triggered by Abkhazia’s closing down of crossing points three years ago. [Read more…]
Municipal workers cleared away the protest camp early Tuesday morning and erected a New Year display in its place. Photo: Shota Kincha/OC Media.
Tbilisi City Hall has cleared the area in front of the Georgian Parliament of protest tents and banners in order to erect a temporary amusement park for the city’s New Year’s Eve celebrations. [Read more…]
Anti-government group Shetsvale mocked Georgian Dream Chair Bidzina Ivanishvili for his party’s use of Facebook trolls against critics
The Georgian government has dismissed accusations by Facebook that they were behind a network of fake news pages, with the ruling Georgian Dream party and pro-government media instead accusing the opposition and others of being propagators of fake news and announcing new proposals to tackle disinformation. [Read more…]
Sashka Kalmakhelidze. Photo: Facebook.
Following the suicide of 15-year-old Luka Siradze on 11 December, allegedly after he was threatened by police, several people have come forward with similar allegations against the police. One such story was that of Sashka Kalmakhelidze, 24, who after being arrested in January 2017 for possession of MDMA, said he too was abused and threatened by the police. [Read more…]
Facebook ‘news pages’ identified by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab promoting Georgian Dream chair Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Facebook has taken down hundreds of pages, accounts, and groups for engaging in ‘coordinated inauthentic behaviour’ on behalf of the Georgian Government. [Read more…]
Photo: Shame Movement
Georgian Dream swept to power in 2012 on the promise of ending police violence, which they labelled the UNM’s ‘nine bloody years’. They have failed.
[Read more…]
