H. E. Mikheil Saakashvili
President of Georgia
Ingorovas 7
Tbilisi
Georgia

Fax: + 995 32 99 08 79 / + 995 32 98 72 62

Vienna, 2 August 2004

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 120 countries, is deeply concerned about the recent police raid on the independent weekly newspaper, The Georgian Times.

According to information before IPI, finance police officers raided the Tbilisi office of The Georgian Times on 14 July without a proper search warrant in order to confiscate accounting documents of the Georgian Times Media Holding. The police officers involved claimed there had been financial irregularities at the company.

Responding to this allegation, The Georgian Times’ management maintains that the raid, which briefly halted work at the newspaper, is part of a deliberate campaign to exert pressure on the newspaper.

The weekly recently published a series of articles questioning the origin of assets belonging to the Tbilisi chief prosecutor, Valery Grigalashvili. In a 14 July statement, The Georgian Times wrote that in private conversations with the newspaper staff, Grigalashvili said he would force the newspaper to close, if it did not stop publishing material about him.

IPI would like to remind Your Excellency that newspapers have a fundamental right to report on legitimate matters of public interest, including the origin of assets allegedly held by Grigalashvili. Any attempt to prevent the media from doing so is not only a disruption of the free flow of information in Georgia, but also a breach of Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states everyone has the right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

With the above in mind, IPI urges Your Excellency to authorise a thorough investigation into this incident and to do everything in your power to create a media environment that allows journalists to exercise their profession free of harassment.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director