“While no journalists were killed or imprisoned in Georgia in 2009, press freedom in this small South Caucasus nation stagnated due to persistent state manipulation of news media, particularly television broadcasting,” reads “Attacks on the Press 2009: Georgia” report issued by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). NEWS.am posts the excerpts

“In a speech before the U.N. General Assembly in September, President Mikhail Saakashvili boasted of Georgia’s media pluralism, stating that the country has &‘27 TV stations.’ He failed to mention that most stations have little reach and, notably, that his government and its allies have long sought to control television news content, most recently through aggressive efforts to obstruct the cable affiliates of a station aligned with a leading opponent.

The broad contours of the government’s years-long efforts to control national television content are well-documented. The television station Rustavi 2—once the flagship of the democratic movement—rested solidly in pro-government hands in 2009. Authorities first gained control of the station in 2004 through the original owner’s coerced sale to a defense official, then in 2006 through a complicated series of buyouts by government loyalists. Critical coverage was eventually scrubbed on Rustavi 2, which ultimately merged with another formerly independent television station, Mze, under the direction of parliamentary member David Bezhuashvili, a Saakashvili ally.

The next venture in free media, Imedi TV, weathered an attempted takeover by police in 2007 over its allegations of government complicity in assassinations. But it lost its independence in 2008 after owner Badri Patarkatsishvili was pressured to give up his shares and flee abroad, where he died of a heart attack. His distant cousin, Georgian-American businessman Joseph Kay, gained control of the station after persuading a Tbilisi court to uphold his management rights. The station took a pro-presidential stance.

The Georgian National Communications Commission pushed back in 2009. The agency pressured several local cable affiliates to halt their rebroadcasts of Maestro, going as far as closing some of the stations temporarily for unspecified &‘technical reasons.’ Maestro faced violence as well. In May, unidentified assailants set off a grenade at the station’s offices, blasting out windows and damaging a door but causing no injuries.

A critical European Union fact-finding report on the August 2008 armed conflict between Russia and Georgia was a failed litmus test for national television. The networks were either silent about the report’s findings or chose to air only conclusions favorable to the Georgian side

The Georgian Orthodox Church, long revered in Georgian society, was drawn into a battle with the media in October as one of Saakashvili’s closest supporters, Tea Tutberidze of the pro-government Liberty Institute, a Western-supported, university-based nonprofit that played a key role in the Rose Revolution, posted satirical videos of Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia on the social networking site Facebook and on the video-sharing site YouTube, animating his image to make it appear he was mouthing attacks on the president. The Georgian patriarchate had earlier criticized Saakashvili for precipitating the war with Russia. Saakashvili denounced the irreverence and sparked fears of censorship by saying he &‘won’t let anyone misuse the principles of freedom,’ local press reports said.

Internet access in Georgia is limited mainly to those in the capital, with penetration estimated by the International Research and Exchanges Board at only 7 percent throughout the country.”