A Georgian court has ordered media executive Mzia Amaghlobeli to remain in jail pending a trial for smacking a controversial police chief in the face during a protest in Batumi, Georgia’s second largest city. The judge’s decision and prosecutors’ request for a whopping seven-year prison sentence are widely seen as part of a clampdown on independent journalism in Georgia.

The founder of two of the nation’s most respected newspapers, Netgazeti and Batumelebi, Amaghlobeli was arrested on January 11 at a rally in Batumi, the nation’s tourism mecca and scene of ongoing protests against the nation’s slide toward authoritarianism and isolation from the West. 

Screaming profanities and using violent crowd-control tactics, Batumi police detained several protesters over last weekend, including Amaghlobeli and her colleagues, as they gathered to call for a nationwide strike against the Georgian Dream-dominated government’s increasingly repressive rule. Civil rights advocates contend that Batumi police officers’ actions violated citizens’ right to assembly and free speech. 

Amaghlobeli was released on personal recognizance the following day, but outside the police station she engaged in an altercation with the local police chief and ended up slapping him in the face. Police officers immediately dragged her back into the station, over protests from her colleagues and other demonstrators.

Later the same day, Guram Murvanidze, a cameraman for Amaghlobeli’s Batumelebi newspaper, was detained by police as he was filming a scuffle between police and protesters. Both Amaghlobeli and Murvanidze reported mistreatment in police custody. 

“I have all reasons to believe that Batumelebi was deliberately targeted,” Nestan Tsetskhladze, editor of Netgazeti, a Tbilisi-based twin outlet of Batumi-based Batumelebi newspaper, told Eurasianet.

Two days later, a court in Batumi ruled to keep Amaghlobeli in pre-trial detention, pending trial on charges of assaulting a law enforcement officer. The judge declared Amaghlobeli a high risk of repeating a criminal offense. Prosecutors are seeking a seven-year prison term for her. 

The ruling and charges against Amaghlobeli have outraged Georgia’s independent media community, especially as her case contrasts sharply with the impunity enjoyed by Georgian police officers, who routinely have assaulted journalists in the past two months. Since protests broke out late last November, riot police have been brutally targeting reporters covering the demonstrations. Some journalists have suffered broken facial bones and other serious injuries.

Transparency International has reported more than 90 cases of assault on journalists by law-enforcement authorities or pro-government thugs in November and December of last year. “These included targeted attacks, severe physical injuries, unlawful detentions, fines, deliberate damage to the equipment, illegal interference with journalistic activities, injuries cause by tear gas, [pepper] sprays, and water cannons, threats and insults,” the watchdog group stated. 

No law enforcement official so far has faced any sort of disciplinary action for using excessive force against journalists. 

Georgian independent journalists, civil society representatives and public figures launched a campaign in support of Amaghlobeli, who is widely respected for creating two high-quality news outlets. “We even refer to these two highly valued media outlets as the conscience of Georgian journalism,” said long-time media advocate Khatia Jinjikhadze in a video she posted under Freedom for Mzia hashtag. 

Noble Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa spoke up for Amaghlobeli on X and called for freedom for Georgia. Amaghlobeli showed up at a January 14 hearing holding Ressa’s book, “How to Stand up to a Dictator.”   

In the view of Amaghlobeli and other protesters, the dictator they face is oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the Georgian Dream party and the de-facto leader of Georgia. Ivanishvili has faced mass protests against his rule since his party prevailed in last year’s disputed parliamentary elections, then suspended Georgia’s plans to join the European Union and finally used force in an effort to crush nationwide resistance to his rule. 

On the day of Amaghlobeli’s hearing, Georgian Dream members physically assaulted the individuals who came to Batumi to support media executive and other detained protesters. Members of Georgian Dream beat seasoned media expert and teacher, Zviad Koridze, and opposition leader Giorgi Gakharia. 

Koridze told reporters that he was attacked in a hotel vestibule by Georgian Dream lawmaker Dimitri Samkharadze and his entourage. “The [hotel] security came running, and they managed to pull them away from me,” Koridze told reporters. Koridze sustained minor injuries, while in a separate incident Gakharia suffered a broken nose and a concussion. 

Attacks on journalists in Georgia have been drawing criticism from international press freedom groups. “Georgian Dream is a nightmare for democracy and the media outlets exposing the party’s authoritarian actions,” said Jeanne Cavelier, regional head of the international media advocacy group Reporter without Borders.