Opinion Desk 
“Free the regime’s prisoners!” has been waved on posters and shouted through megaphones in Tbilisi for more than a year. Now, some of them could walk free if plea agreements announced by prosecutors are signed and given court approval. Seven people detained after the October 4, 2025 protest outside the presidential residence on Atoneli Street … Read more
Georgia’s Independence Day saw two celebrations: the government’s and the opposition’s. But in Western media, and among Georgia’s own duck pond of grant-run outlets, the opposition’s evening event took center stage and was largely presented as a pro-European democracy rally. Euronews led with “thousands of protesters” marching through Tbilisi for a “pro-Europe rally.” JAMnews called … Read more
A recent Foreign Policy article presents Georgia’s stray dog program as something close to an authoritarian horror story. Dogs are “vanishing”. Vans are “sweeping through cities”. Smoke is seen rising at night from a crematorium at a municipal shelter in Gori. Activists tell of the smell of burned fur and meat. The reader is then … Read more
Here are 8 tell-tale signs that the Georgia “news” site you are reading is not independent. Georgia has many outlets that describe themselves as independent media. Some do real reporting. Others function more like influence platforms: selecting facts, amplifying friendly NGOs, laundering embassy positions, and presenting political narratives as neutral truth. Walter Lippmann warned that … Read more
Georgia’s government is currently shunned by much of Europe. An impression has taken hold that the country has slipped into authoritarian rule. Part of this image rests on the claim that the 2024 parliamentary election was stolen. The strongest false narratives are often assembled from pieces of correct facts. That is what happened here. Let … Read more
The big problem with news coverage of Georgia is that a small cluster of foreign-funded NGO media platforms have come to dominate English-language reporting on the country while presenting themselves as neutral journalism. International media benefit from this arrangement. They get English-fluent intermediaries ready with quotes, angles and ready-made narratives. The NGO platforms benefit too, … Read more
Georgia’s “crackdown” isn’t what the headlines suggest. International coverage of Georgia’s recent detentions reads like a Cold War thriller. Words such as “purge,” “totalitarianism,” and “crackdown” are passed around as generously as khinkali at a supra. Once again, foreign audiences are dazzled by the imagery but left in the dark about what’s actually happening, and … Read more
They come to Tbilisi, are taken on a tour, and “taken for a ride” by a conspicuous crowd of people who happen to be out of government at the moment. The latest was Finland’s Elena Valtonen, who did the rounds: dropped by the opposition demonstrators at parliament to show support, met with the usual NGO … Read more
Donor-funded media platforms in Georgia are billed as “independent.” That might play well in Brussels and Washington. But seeing this from the inside here in Tbilisi, the picture looks very different. Outlets such as JAM News and OC Media operate almost entirely on grants from foreign governments and foundations. For long, sounding the alarm about … Read more
The international media’s portrayal of Georgia’s opposition is starting to look more like myth-making than reporting. Mundane acts of defiance are routinely spun as proof of government repression. Take the case of journalist and media founder Mzia Amaghlobeli, now feted as a symbol of free speech. She has been nominated for the EU’s prestigious Sakharov … Read more