The prominent media organization “charter of Journalistic Ethics of Georgia” criticized the arrest of Giorgi Badridge. He is the junior editor of the online magazine of Georgia “Tabula”.
His arrest news came at a time when large-scale protests were going on in many parts of the country including the Capital Tbilisi. As per the statement of Levan Sutidze the chief editor of the magazine, police arrested him on May 3 in the early morning. Police arrested him at the time when he was recording the ongoing protest, However he was later on released by the police.
The police also attacked many other journalists. They also asked Giorgi Badridze to hand over his phone authorities which was not obeyed by him citing the independence of the press. This is not the first time he has been attacked just in the last month on April 16 he was assaulted by members of the special forces. That fact of the attack is being studied by the Special Investigation Service under the article of Georgia law that deals with exceeding official authority ( subparagraph “ b ” of part 3 of Article 133 of the Criminal Code ).
It is to be specifically mentioned that during the tenure of April 30 to May 2 a large number of people have been assaulted including the journalist. The police are interfering with the journalist for performing their duties. In some cases, the physical attacks were also launched injuring many among them as well.
The Charter of Journalistic Ethics of Georgia demanded that the Special Investigation Service to promptly and efficiently investigate the fact of the attack on the editor of ” Tabula ” and arrest the responsible person for exceeding the legal authorities. They also demanded that special measures be taken to apprise the police force members of how to deal with the journalists who were just performing their duties during the existing protests.
