When a government-friendly TV channel recently reported that German Ambassador Peter Fischer’s spacious apartment in downtown Tbilisi belongs to the wife of a leading opposition politician, that was obviously a story.
A diplomat’s potential conflict of interest in the host country’s domestic political wranglings? That is exactly the kind of thing that stirs a journalist’s instincts.
But strangely, for several days, while national government-friendly media were running this story on full blast, none of the foreigner run self-styled “independent media” in Tbilisi chose to report it.
How come?
Finally, when we were two articles in, the old platform Civil.ge finally followed suit, but reframed the story to shift attention away from the ambassador.
The reluctance is no big mystery:
These “independent” reporting platforms are run by groups that depend on donor funding. Germany is one of the biggest in that game. Embassies are the gatekeepers to the money bin that these organizations crave for and usually have a separate “small grants” line in their budget for special gifts to favored locals.
It’s important to note that the Khazaradze family has rejected the allegations of impropriety. Perhaps the whole story is just another “dark PR” campaign by Georgian Dream. But that is not a valid reason to ignore the story. And now that Georgia’s Revenue Service has launched a formal investigation, it unquestionably deserves coverage.
Many of the people behind these websites are not journalists in the traditional sense, but information workers with backgrounds in advocacy, communications, or academia. Their work may resemble journalism in form, but lacks true independence.
“It’s important to understand that independent media in Georgia cannot survive through self-funding—it’s simply not possible,” JAM News recently wrote in an article detailing GD’s latest legal moves to restrict the media.
We share some of these concerns. But by their logic, we shouldn’t exist.
And yet, here we are: a news outlet based in Georgia, publishing in English, with no donor funding, and no one telling us what stories we can or cannot report.
We know journalism is not immune to the pressures of business. And sometimes, advocacy has its place. But independence means following the story wherever it leads, even if it points toward friends, donors, or diplomats.
Some in Tbilisi’s donor-linked media ecosystem struggle with the idea that those who’ve long told others how to behave—be they diplomats, reformers, or well-paid “volunteers”—can themselves be held to the same standard. They hesitate with pursuing such stories. We get it. We’ve been there.
But we believe the readers deserve an alternative. One that is free from donor influence.
That is why we say:
No donors. Independent journalism.
