What you WON'T HEAR in Our News

Nino Burdzhanadze, the leader of the opposition in Georgia wrote an article in "The Guardian" on October 7 of this year. In it, she discusses the implications of the recent EU report which found Georgia to be the country which started the war with Ossetia last year. That report made lack of freedom of press painfully obvious in Georgia, if only the world which now finances approximately half of the annual budget of that country were to listen.

Here are some excerpts from her article:

"The Tagliavini report states in black and white that our armed forces broke international law in firing first and attacking peacekeeping troops. Our president – the man who gave the illegal order to launch the attack – simply says it does not. Our media do not call him out as a liar, but repeat his propaganda word for word. [...]

Heidi Tagliavini's report rightly condemns the use of nationalist and xenophobic rhetoric by politicians in the run-up to the war; we in Georgia were deluged with it throughout 2008. But that political sewage also required a sewer, and that was found in a Georgian broadcast media that, at a national level, is under the complete control of the government.

Tbilisi has a thriving media and some Internet access and opposition voices can get a hearing in newspapers and cable TV. But for two-thirds of the country, our three national TV channels are the only mass media available. And all are directed by the president's inner circle.

Our public television channel is explicitly government controlled. The second station is partly owned by a government MP and, it has been said, if it had been in Berlin and not Tbilisi Germans would still think they had won the war. Our third station used to be independent but was seized by special forces in 2007 and later handed over to cronies of the regime. [...]

Today, basing his argument on the lie that somehow he had no choice, Saakashvili boasts he would indeed do the same again if he got the chance. [...]

EU and US money are now vital to our economy. It's time western taxpayers insisted that it was not being used to prop up authoritarianism and it is time for Saakashvili to pay the price his responsibility demands and to go."

Read the complete text of The Guardian article here. Make sure you also read the comments to the article. In them, many people argue Nino Burdzhanadze's point that the West, unlike Georgia, has a truly free press. They point out to the fact that what we were fed by the "news" media as the war was unravelling was nothing short of propaganda. I am glad that at least people in the UK are aware of that.

It is interesting that according to Burdzhanadze, Saakashvili maintains that given the same situation he would do the same again. Well... I sure hope he won't ask me to contribute towards another billion dollars to prop up his regime.