(RSF/IFEX) – On 2 October 2002, RSF called for the punishment of police officers who issued deaths threats against a journalist and her family and went on a rampage at a television station in the western Georgian town of Zugdidi on 27 September, hours after the station broadcast criticism of the local police force. About […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 2 October 2002, RSF called for the punishment of police officers who issued deaths threats against a journalist and her family and went on a rampage at a television station in the western Georgian town of Zugdidi on 27 September, hours after the station broadcast criticism of the local police force.
About 30 police officers broke into the offices of the Odishi television station, beat journalists and technicians and destroyed video and computer equipment. They later physically attacked the mother and young son of journalist Ema Gogokhia, a regional correspondent for the independent station Rustavi 2 (whose news programmes are aired by Odishi), and threatened to kill her entire family. Gogokhia had helped produce two programmes that denounced police violence and a corrupt local police chief.
“We are deeply shocked by this episode,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard in a letter to Georgian President Edvard Shevardnadze. “Such violence, in full view of everyone, as well as the attack on the child, just because journalists did their jobs, means the death threats to Gogokhia and her family must be taken very seriously. We insist that you thoroughly investigate and prosecute those responsible, even if they are government officials.”
Eyewitnesses said the attackers included Deputy Provincial Police Chief Robert Shikobava and the deputy police chief of Zugdidi district, Beglar Ponia. Odishi managing editor Levan Kobalia said he also recognised Regional Police Chief Elguzha Zhamburia among the group.
Earlier on 27 September, the station had aired a Rustavi 2 report about violence by special police units in Zugdidi. The report detailed an assault by police officers on demonstrators who were protesting the transfer of four people suspected of killing policeman Simon Marmania, to the capital, Tbilisi.
An hour after the attack on the station, four policemen went to Gogokhia’s home. The journalist was not present at the time. The police officers beat her mother and 10-year-old son, and attempted to kidnap the boy. Neighbours prevented them from taking the child away and heard police officers warn the mother that she would soon be receiving her daughter’s severed head.
Gogokhia said the police officers threatened to kill her family if a second report was aired. The police officers who came to the journalist’s home reportedly stated that, unlike star Rustavi 2 presenter Georgiy Sanaya, who was murdered on 26 July 2001, her body would never be found. The second controversial report was aired on 29 September and implicated Ponia in a petrol smuggling racket.
