GD MP accuses several MEPs “lobbying opposition” of creating “artificial barriers” for Georgia’s EU integration

Head of the Georgian Dream (GD) ruling party faction in the state legislature, Mamuka Mdinaradze, accused several MEPs “obviously lobbying the United National Movement (UNM) opposition,” of creating artificial barriers for Georgia’s EU integration through initiating debates on Georgian media environment on Wednesday, ahead of the EU’s decision on the country’s candidate status.

Mdinaradze said on Thursday that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe April resolution read that “freedom of expression and the media environment were protected in Georgia.”

“When a month ago such an unequivocally positive assessment came from Europe and when a month later our European colleagues came out and illustrated an absolutely inverted, catastrophic situation in this regard, it is spreading fake information and attacking Georgia,” Mdinaradze said.

 

He suggested that the recent arrest of the head of the opposition-minded Mtavari channel, former UNM official Nika Gvaramia for abuse of power while managing Rustavi 2 TV, “was impossible to change the media environment so swiftly.”

Mdinaradze said that “actually” no one was speaking about the charges of Gvaramia and was “just spreading fake information, cause the goal is to create artificial barriers for Georgia on its EU path.”

Yesterday, on June 8, the European Parliament debated a resolution on violations of media freedom in Georgia and security challenges for journalists.

The debate was opened by MEP Miriam Lexmann (EPP, Christian Democratic Party, Slovakia), one of the authors of the draft resolution.

The EPP is allied with the UNM.

She stated that “unfortunately in recent years we have seen serious restrictions on media freedom in Georgia.”