The Committee to Protect Journalists on February 20 joined dozens of press freedom and journalists’ organizations in calling on Georgian authorities to immediately release jailed media manager Mzia Amaghlobeli.
Police arrested Amaghlobeli, director of the independent media outlets Netgazeti and Batumelebi, on January 11 following an altercation with a local police chief. She was charged with attacking a police officer, which is widely seen as disproportionate and as retaliation for her journalism. If convicted, she faces a minimum four-year prison term.
Amaghlobeli went on a hunger strike following her arrest, but ended it on February 18, after 38 days, after doctors warned that her life was in danger.
Press freedom has sharply declined in Georgia in recent months under the ruling Georgian Dream party. Dozens of journalists covering mass anti-government protests have been violently obstructed or beaten by police, while authorities have enacted a “foreign agent” law targeting the press.
Read the full statement here.