The number of attacks on journalists are rising throughout Georgia. Almost fifty journalists have been attacked since the protest broke out in the country over foreign agent law.
It is to be specifically added that most of the journalists have been attacked during the coverage of the protests. At the same time there are many have been seriously injured in these attacks as well.
As per the information provided by the Media Advocacy Group in the latest incident of the physical attack Lexo Lashkarava one of the TV channel journalists has been critically injured. He have been died later on due to the serious injuries caused by the attackers as well.
The Media Advocacy Coalition has provided information on this latest incident of violence on its official social media handle. The coalition has stated in the Facebook post that “On July 5, 2021, journalists were physically assaulted by violent groups. On this day more than 50 journalists or cameramen were injured including Lexo Lashkarava operator of TV “First,” who died a few days after physical reports. Sadly the government has failed to ensure the safety of journalists and hold the perpetrators of violence accountable.”
Notably in the last months of protest the coalition hvae raised its voices against the violence against the journalists. The members of the media advocacy coalition have also criticized the government’s inaction against the attacker.
It is worth noting that Georgia’s foreign agent law adopted following the large-scale protest required civil organizations especially media organizations to register under the new law. Organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from foreign countries will be registered as agents of foreign countries.
Representatives of media houses and the general public also held large-scale protests against the law. The ruling government of the Georgian Dream Party was also criticized at world leval. The USA and many other countries even proposed to impose restrictions on foreign agent laws to protect freedom of speech and expression as well.
