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Pressure on Info 9 reporters

Pressure on reporters from the Info 9 news agency continues Rezonansi reports. The agency is owned by opposition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili. So far, only three instances of undue pressure have been made public. However, agency representatives say that the frequency of these instances is much higher. Info 9 has recently demanded an investigation regarding the pressure placed on Eka Dugladze, a reporter from the Imereti region. For several months, she claims that she has been followed by 7 men with microphones and video cameras asking various questions.

The same type of pressure is causing Nino Basishvili, a local correspondent from Gardabani are great deal of stress. According to Basishvili, she was attending the opening of the Georgian Dream office in Gardabani. During this time, several individuals appeared and began asking her provocative questions. “The questions posed included things like: who was our sponsor, what kind of topics we were working on... We have tried to avoid further confrontation by leaving the area, but they followed us,” she said. This harassment reached Gori as well, where Rezo Nadiradze was a target of a physical assault.

Media analyst Ia Antadze explains that the frequent pressure campaign has been happening to many regional journalists recently. The GYLA says that the prosecutor’s office should get involved in those violations. Thus far, the prosecutor’s position is unknown.



Bad weather affects Black Sea tourism

The influence of the recent bad weather has become evident on the Black Sea coast. According to local residents, compared with last year, the number of tourists in Adjara has decreased. According to the National Tourism Agency (NTA) however, tourists are still actively visiting Adjara and the weather has not influenced the number of tourists the popular region has had. According to the NTA’s information, 470, 458 tourists visited the Adjara region this year, from which 253, 720 are Georgians and 216, 738 have been foreign guests. Weather forecasters say that the rainy, chilly weather will last up until July 15.

From January to June 2012, the major number of tourists hailed from Turkey, followed by Azerbaijan and Armenia. Additional tourists come to the Black Sea coast from Ukraine, Iran, Russia and the European Union countries.