Georgia

Georgia ranked 135th of 180 countries in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index, published on 30 April 2026, with a score of 40.77. It fell 21 positions and 9.76 points from 114th and 50.53 in 2025. Reporters Without Borders classifies Georgia’s media environment as difficult, citing a hostile environment for independent and opposition media, restrictive laws on foreign influence and family values, and a growing number of verbal and physical attacks on journalists.

RSF identified Georgia as one of the countries experiencing the steepest long-term deterioration, reporting a fall of 75 places over the index’s 25-year history.

Media Freedom Rapid Response partners state that, since the contested parliamentary elections of October 2024, Georgia has undergone one of the most rapid and serious deteriorations of press freedom recorded in a European Union member state or candidate country. Their assessment identifies legislative restrictions, attacks on journalists, regulatory pressure and financial constraints on independent media.

In November 2025 the Center for Media, Information and Social Studies documented 600 press-freedom violations between October 2024 and October 2025. The violations included physical assaults, arbitrary fines, arrests, threats and suspensions of accreditation. The pro-European protest movement itself began on 28 November 2024, after the Government announced the suspension of accession talks with the European Union.

The imprisonment of Mzia Amaghlobeli has become the defining individual case. The co-founder of Batumelebi and Netgazeti and a recipient of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize was arrested on 12 January 2025 following an altercation with a police chief in Batumi and remained in detention through a 38-day hunger strike. She was sentenced in August 2025 to two years in prison after proceedings that press-freedom organisations described as politically motivated and the punishment as disproportionate.

On 4 March 2026 the Supreme Court declined to consider her appeal, exhausting the ordinary domestic remedies. Her application for conditional early release was also refused, the board citing what it described as her failure to repent.

In July 2026 Transparency International Georgia published a list of 91 people whom it assessed as meeting one or more of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s criteria for political prisoners. Thirteen, including Amaghlobeli, were assessed as meeting all five criteria. The ruling Georgian Dream party rejects the assertion that Georgia holds political prisoners.

The legislative environment tightened repeatedly. In April 2025 Parliament required government consent for foreign donors to provide monetary or in-kind grants to Georgian organisations and individuals. Georgia’s 2025 Foreign Agents Registration Act created criminal liability, potentially including imprisonment, for wilful non-compliance by persons and organisations deemed to be acting for foreign principals.

Amendments enacted in June 2026 prohibit most foreign financing of broadcasters and strengthen enforcement powers, including the communications regulator’s authority to obtain information about funding and relevant banking records. Separate legislation has broadened restrictions and penalties applying to demonstrations and public assemblies.

Since 2022, Beijing has gradually strengthened its influence over Georgia’s information space through local intermediaries rather than by establishing a Chinese state outlet in the country.

State Media Monitor maps two entries in Georgia. Both are classified State-Controlled, and neither sits in the independent family.

The Georgian Public Broadcaster is a Legal Entity under Public Law established on the basis of state property. It operates First Channel and First Channel Sport, Georgian Radio and Georgian Radio Music, together with the 1TV.ge and 1TVPlay digital platforms.

Adjara Television and Radio is a separate Legal Entity under Public Law serving the Autonomous Republic of Adjara. It operates one television channel and one radio channel.

The two entities are legally distinct but have shared a governing board since July 2023.

Amendments adopted in July 2023 expanded GPB’s Board of Trustees from nine members to 11, removed the restriction preventing a trustee from serving more than one six-year term and abolished Adjara Television and Radio’s five-member Council of Advisors.

The Board’s eleven members are elected by Parliament: two on the nomination of the Public Defender, three on the nomination of the parliamentary majority, three on the nomination of the largest opposition factions and three on the nomination of the Supreme Council of Adjara.

That selection process was weakened again in 2026. An amendment to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, adopted in June and effective from 1 July, abolished the open competition and nine-member selection commission that had previously assessed applicants. Each quota holder may now select and nominate one candidate directly, subject to an eligibility assessment by the parliamentary Economic Policy Committee and a vote in Parliament. The enacted instrument is Parliament Regulation No. 1683 of 10 June 2026.

Leadership at both broadcasters was settled during the review period. Irakli Kikvadze was elected Director of Adjara Television and Radio on 29 January 2026 for a three-year term. Tinatin Berdzenishvili was re-elected GPB Director General on 29 July for a second six-year term; she was the sole applicant in the competition.

The statutory floor fixing GPB’s financing at 0.14 per cent of gross domestic product was abolished in December 2023. From 1 January 2026, public-broadcasting financing is calculated by multiplying the number of natural persons employed in the preceding year by a coefficient of GEL 64. The result may not fall below the previous year’s approved appropriation, and any reduction requires the consent of the Board of Trustees. Parliament determines the coefficient.

Adjara Television and Radio’s statutory share rose from 16 per cent in 2024 and 17 per cent in 2025 to 21 per cent from 1 January 2026.

The initially approved 2026 budget for Adjara Television and Radio was GEL 22.7753 million, including GEL 20.9312 million in state appropriations, approximately 91.9 per cent of the total. First Channel’s approved total budget was GEL 114.4524 million, including GEL 80.2698 million in state appropriations. These are total organisational budgets and should not be confused with the statutory public-broadcasting appropriation alone.

Georgia’s statutory safeguards are more substantial than those in most comparable systems in the region. The Law on Broadcasting provides that GPB is independent of state agencies and not subordinate to them. Article 16 requires editorial independence, fairness, impartiality, freedom from governmental, political, religious and commercial influence, and pluralism. Those duties apply to Adjara Television and Radio through Article 35¹.

Both broadcasters publish budget decisions, execution reports and audit conclusions. The Board must commission an independent annual audit and report annually to Parliament and the communications regulator.

Those protections have not prevented documented editorial pressure. In January 2025 GPB journalists interrupted a live Board meeting to protest against the broadcaster’s coverage of pro-European demonstrations, political repression and Amaghlobeli’s imprisonment. During 2025 GPB dismissed anchors Vasil Ivanov-Chikovani and Nino Zautashvili, closed the programmes Real Space and This Weekend, and terminated the contracts of team members who refused reassignment. The journalists had publicly criticised GPB’s editorial policy and alleged political influence.

At Adjara Television and Radio, the April 2019 dismissal of Director Natia Kapanadze drew domestic and international condemnation. Journalists subsequently reported interference, harassment, dismissal and reassignment in connection with politically inconvenient coverage.

The GPB Board Chair, Vasil Maglaperidze, briefly served as a deputy chairman of Georgian Dream in 2021.

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