I have wanted to be a journalist since I was 5 years old. I grew up watching the news and reading the paper with my mother every night. I marveled at what it would be like to ask questions and write the stories. As a reporter and editor for the newspaper Rustavi-Info, I have tasted my dream.
I am from the country of Georgia, a former Soviet Republic on the southern border of the current Russian Federation. Now an independent and “officially” democratic country, Georgia faces ongoing economic and political troubles.
The turmoil prompted Douglas Frantz, a reporter for the New York Times, to describe the country as a “vast region rich in oil, gas and strategic importance but short of hope.”
Georgia, unfortunately, is a country that is also missing that valuable trait known as respect for the law.
Rusudan Tsereteli, a visiting journalist from the Republic of Georgia in eastern Europe, spent three days this week exploring Red Wing. — staff photo by Cody Buckalew
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On July 28, I joined nine other journalists from different parts of the world in St. Paul for a week of journalism seminars before beginning internships in various American cities.
We are part of a program called the World Press Institute fellowship at Macalester College. We are granted a unique opportunity to study media, government and politics, as well as health issues in the United States. I am assigned to the Republican Eagle this week. I fell in love at first sight with my host newspaper.
During my stay, I frequently think about the different ways journalism is practiced in the United States and Georgia. I also think about the diversities between the countries. They are a study in contrasts under this globalization, war, terror and the upcoming global warming period. One country is more powerful and respectful of the law; the other, unfortunately, is weak without that valuable trait.
The collapse of the Soviet Union was definitely the beginning of the new history for the world. The citizens of the post-communist countries were sure that after those remarkable changes, democracy would succeed. But the people from the post-Soviet Georgia are still without press freedom and freedom of speech.
The major Georgian news organizations are independent de jure, but de facto they are controlled by political parties or financial groups working under the direct or indirect protection of the government. Moreover, the Georgian media is under severe censorship.
Articles and broadcast programs critical of the government are not tolerated. Editors and reporters have lost jobs and publishers have been threatened with physical harm for their attempts to maintain editorial independence.
Live talk shows dealing with politics and a healthy debate of the issues in the media are virtually non-existent. Various political parties, governmental authorities or huge oligarchic companies control the most popular TV companies and newspapers.
Also, the money used to run these news organizations mostly comes from Russia, which means that the news that gets printed or broadcast is controlled by Russian policy makers.
The situation can be described by one simple sentence: You pay to play.
To manage an independent newspaper in Georgia and to tell the truth and be accurate, unbiased and fair requires taking a lot of risks. For example, publishing unflattering information about the government — as my paper does — can be risky, even dangerous. Georgian officials typically respond to probing questions with silence or anger. Sometimes they deny statements that Georgian journalists recorded on tape.
“This is not my voice,” they claim. “I have never told you that.”
My newspaper, Rustavi-Info, had computers and rolls of newsprint stolen after publishing articles critical of the government, and my family received several death threats after I published articles about a provincial governor extorting money from farmers.
Our small newspaper, however, has continued to publish my stories, despite pressures not do so from the government, and I believe my example has encouraged many colleagues to do the same.
I have provided a small description of the struggle to achieve a free press in Georgia. Georgians want to apply the principles of democracy, and they need a western-style journalism to help them do so.
With that in mind, two years ago I opened a school of journalism in my home country where reporters and students can be exposed to American journalism. The U.S. Embassy in Georgia has provided financial assistance for the school.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, I strongly see the importance of the free press. I am reminded that there can be no democracy without freedom of expression, and a country is only as free as its press. An educated public always demands democracy.
Notebook
By Rusudan Tsereteli, WPI '06