New York, March 5, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Georgian court decision to proceed with the trial of media manager Mzia Amaglobeli and keep her in detention, following an altercation with a local police chief.
In a March 4 pretrial hearing, Georgia’s western Batumi City Court rejected motions to release Amaglobeli, director of independent news outlets Netgazeti and Batumelebi, and to dismiss the charge against her of attacking a police officer. If convicted, Amaglobeli faces a minimum four-year prison sentence, in a case that is widely seen as disproportionate and in retaliation for her journalism.
“Georgian authorities’ prosecution of media manager Mzia Amaglobeli is clearly punitive and is all the more jarring given rampant impunity for brutal police attacks on journalists,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Authorities should release Amaglobeli immediately.”
The trial is due to begin on March 18, local journalist Irma Dimitradze told CPJ.
Amaglobeli has been behind bars since her January 12 arrest, when she began a hunger strike that lasted 38 days.
Amaglobeli was not covering the protests when she was arrested, but human rights groups calling for her release believe she is being punished for her outlets’ reporting on alleged abuses by authorities, including the police.
The journalist’s lawyer Juba Katamadze told CPJ that Amaglobeli had been unlawfully detained earlier that evening for putting up a poster on a police station wall to protest her friend’s detention, and that her slapping of Batumi police chief Irakli Dgebuadze did not warrant prosecution under the serious charge of attacking an officer.
Amaglobeli’s case comes amid a sharp decline in press freedom in Georgia. Dozens of journalists covering anti-government protests have been violently obstructed or beaten by police. Last week, the government proposed to introduce prison terms for non-compliance with an amended “foreign agent” law and to tighten control over broadcasters.
Editor’s note: This text has been updated in the fifth paragraph to correct the date of Amaglobeli’s arrest and throughout to correct the spelling of her name and the charge as an attack.