Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a blog post: The Overview of the Memory Politics of Georgia. In this report, IDFI discussed the memory politics of independent Georgia since 1991, achievements and challenges in the three basic directions – legal dimension, institutional dimension, and memorial dimension. Based on the report, it can be argued that there are challenges in the three directions.  “First of all, one of the most important challenges is that 80% of KGB documents were destroyed during the Tbilisi Civil War, which makes the full-scale lustration almost impossible in Georgia. Moreover, the assumption that part of the archives may still be preserved in Russia should be considered. This could possess particular threats for Georgia within the context of tense relations between Russia and Georgia”, - is mentioned in the report.  Read more…  Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes an assessment of visions that parties have in regard to combating homelessness. “Unfortunately, a significant part of political parties does not talk about homeless groups, other than those displaced, and specific ways to empower them”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes an evaluation: Drug policy in pre-election visions of parties - 2020. “In general, it should be mentioned that in the pre-election context, the issue of drug policy is in fact ignored and public discussions about it take place rather in exceptional cases. While in pre-election programs and visions this topic is presented in a very fragmentary way”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Civil Society Organization’s Web Portal - CsoGeorgia.org, ask you to complete the questionnaire. Your feedback is important to us. We have started many innovations since 2012 and we are also planning many updates. Share your views in order to better provide you with the desired information, to better assist you in your activities. Deadline for completing the questionnaire: November 27, 2020 Questionnaire...

Tbilisi. The Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies releases a publication, which, on the basis of a review of examples, reveals how Russia uses hacker groups, affiliated with “GRU”, the Main Intelligence Directorate, to carry out the desired policy in European countries. Read more… Source: www.gfsis.org

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy publishes a document, which contains a review of the Minsk crisis in the context of regional geopolitical dynamics, EU response activities and Eastern Partnership (EaP) initiative, as well as its impact on Georgia. Besides, it emphasizes interests of the European Union, EaP countries and Russia in the current situation in Belarus. Furthermore, it also contains an overview of possible scenarios for future developments. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. On October 14, 2020, Freedom House published an annual report on Internet freedom around the world. In 2020, Georgia obtained a score of 76 out of 100 and was assessed as “Free” in terms of Internet freedom. The country’s score improved by 1 point compared to 2019. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a critical analysis of activities of the State Agency for Religious Issues. “As it turned out later, even people directly involved in the establishment of the Agency for Religious Issues had various opinions in regard to its activities and functions. For some of them, the agency was a mechanism for ensuring religious freedom, as well as flexible, transparent and democratic relationship between the state and religious associations in the country, however, within the process of its operation it became clear that control over activities of the agency appeared in the hands of the State Security Service of Georgia”. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The amendments to the Law of Georgia on Information Security initiated in October 2019 became the subject of criticism of the representatives of civil society, private sector as well as the experts in the field. IDFI was actively involved in the process of reviewing the bill and examining the risks associated with the amendments. “Back in November of last year, IDFI published considerations associated with the bill. Due to the disagreements with stakeholders on principal issues, the adoption of legislative amendments was first delayed in June 2020. The draft law was returned to the mode of the second reading from the stage of the final hearing. Significantly modified version of the draft amendments was resubmitted to the Parliament and carried through the second reading stage in September 2020. It should be noted that the draft amendments were introduced to the Parliament in the mode of the third reading in frames of the Plenary sittings of September 15-18, however, the amendments were not proposed for voting. Voting on the draft law was also planned through the last plenary sitting of the Parliament of the 9th convocation on September 30, though the draft law of the initiated and discussed amendments was not put to the vote by the Parliament even within the frames of the conclusive plenary sitting”. IDFI states that, given the challenges of the Draft Amendments to the Law of Georgia on Information Security, it is necessary for the Parliament of the 10th convocation to consider the possibility of developing a new version of the amendments. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Center for Training and Consultancy publishes a work of Tamar Meskhi: “11 Georgian stories from Chernobyl”, which refers to the Georgian liquidators of the Chernobyl results..  “There are gathered stories of Georgians working at the site of the Chernobyl disaster in the collection. Read how Georgian “liquidators” lived in the radiation zone, what lifestyles they had, what memories about the site of the disaster they have, and how they live today”. See the collection in full... Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Material of Mariam Nebieridze, a student of the Myth Detector Laboratory, may let you know who disseminates the conspiracy, as if the program created in 1980 was preparing Georgia for the 2020 pandemic. “On October 7, Lasha Modebadze, a fake account, shared a post in a public group “Coronamafia and Georgia as an experimental country”, which was related to information released by the US Embassy in regard to the South Caucasus Regional Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program. According to the post, the program was preparing Georgia for the pandemic in advance.  The Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP), organized by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), has been operating since 1980 and involves more than 80 countries. The statement, as if the program created in 1980 was preparing Georgia for the 2020 pandemic, is a conspiracy theory”, - is noted in the blog post. Read more…  Source:www.mythdetector.ge

Tbilisi. Within the framework of an online lecture, Anton Vacharadze, Head of Memory and Disinformation Studies Direction and Megi Kartsivadze, an analyst at the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) talked about the topic: Russian propaganda: From empire to modernity. Watch a video recording of the online lecture at the link: Read more about the lecture here… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations of Georgia respond to the fact of detention of Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilychova, former members of the Border Delimitation and Demarcation Commission of the Government, by the Office of Prosecutor General on October 7. “We consider that the time of launching the investigation, the pre-election context, signs of selective approach during the investigation process and populist statements, made by leaders of the ruling party violating the presumption of innocence, raise suspicion that the investigation serves political motivations and aim at misleading citizens of Georgia as well as discrediting political opponents”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes an article of Mariam Shalvashvili: Muslim women of highland Adjara. “The purpose of this two-part article is, on the one hand, to emphasize that Islam is an integral part of daily life in Adjara and to show its importance. While on the other hand, to prevent conversion of all aspects of life to and their explanation by religion, therefore, dominant discourse challenge, prevalent in the West, is the main line of articles. These articles are an attempt to provide a little more knowledge about the Adjara region and Muslim Adjarians - to describe conditions, in which highland Adjara resident women live: unequal economic situation, tough working conditions, inaccessibility to health and education, as well as isolation characteristic of a geographic and cultural periphery, besides, to show how agency of Muslim women is manifested”. Read more… Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. As Myth Detector informs, on October 3, one of the Armenian-language Facebook pages posted a video spreading news as if the Borjomi railway station is used to deliver military equipment to Azerbaijan. The video contains shots taken from a vehicle displaying buildings, railway, trucks and several tanks. “The publicized video does not evidence that there takes place transportation of military equipment from the territory of Georgia to Azerbaijan. Furthermore, it is also difficult to identify where and when the video was taken. Both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Armenian Embassy in Georgia deny the disseminated news”. Read more… Source:www.mythdetector.ge

Tbilisi. USAID/Georgia announced the Georgia Information Integrity Program, a new five-year initiative designed to help Georgia build societal resilience against disinformation. Through 2025, USAID is partnering with the Government of Georgia and others to develop a comprehensive, “whole-of-society” approach to protecting Georgia’s information space. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a blog post: Disinformation spread in Armenian and Azerbaijani media in regard to the position of Georgia on the Karabakh conflict.  Despite the fact that Georgia maintains neutrality over the military conflict taking place between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, there is misinformation in regard to the position of Georgia actively spread in Armenian and Azerbaijani media.  Disseminated disinformation includes news about Georgia providing a path to military equipment sent from Turkey to Azerbaijan. There periodically appear Georgian and Russian-language posts, in which Georgia is accused of the above-mentioned action. Following to spread of similar disinformation, the situation in Javakheti has become tense several times. ”While on September 30, Karen Ohanjanyan, an Armenian politician and Leader of the “Republican Party of Nagorno-Karabakh”, posted disinformation of the same content on his Facebook page accusing Georgia of providing a path to military supplies sent from Turkey to Azerbaijan and stated that Javakheti should declare independence from Georgia. The statement of Ohanjanyan is a clear example of the extent of disinformation in regard to Georgia in the Armenian information space”. In the circumstances of an information war, the organization calls on the government to enhance communication with the local population, international partners, make sure they are informed about developments taking place in the region, declare the official position of Georgia on neutrality and steps taken by the country.  Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies publishes a blog post: Overview of the Russian Armed Forces: Edition 55, September 21-27, 2020. “Overview of the Russian Armed Forces is a weekly digest, which provides readers with information regarding key activities of the military forces of the Russian Federation and changes taking place there. The overview will be useful for researchers, public servants and all others interested in what is going on in the military forces of this one of the most aggressive states in the world”. Read more… Source: www.gfsis.org

Tbilisi. Myth Detector publishes material of Medea Sulamanidze: Does there exist a secret UN document in regard to the New World Order? “On October 1, 2020, Nina Marji, a Facebook user, posted a video in a public group “Corona Afiora” in the Russian language, in which an animated character talks about the New World Order, a program developed by the UN. The video asserts that the UN has set goals for world governance, among which are abolition of family and state sovereignty, implantation of chips into human bodies, installation of 5G technologies, introduction of a digital world currency, establishment of a world army, etc. A Georgian translation of the video text is provided in posts of Georgian users as a description. The assertion of both posts of Georgian users and the Russian-language video that there exists a UN program intending to establish the New World Order for 2021-2030 years, lacks evidences and is a conspiracy. A document with such name or content cannot be searched through open sources”. Read more… Source: www.mythdetector.ge

Adjara. On September, 30 within the joint project “Young Volunteer”, the Georgia Red Cross Society and the Youth Regional Center trained 15 volunteers. They will be involved in the project from October 1 and will be located at various places. Read more... Source: The organization's page in the social network

Tbilisi. Online meetings to discuss the mission and charter of the Committee for the Support of Strengthening the Services for the Persons with Disability are underway by the Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC). On October 1, the meeting was held with representatives from the Guria and Kvemo Kartli regions. The meeting aimed to determine the mission and organizational structure of the Committee and to work on the draft document. Read more... Source: The organization's page in the social network

Tbilisi. On September 30, 2020, IDFI and GYLA, in cooperation with the Administration of the Government of Georgia, conducted online training for regional NGOs on Public Administration Reform (PAR) issues. The training participants were introduced to the issues of Public Administration Reform, PAR Action Plan and its monitoring methodology. The electronic monitoring platform for Public Administration Reform (PAR Tracker), which ensures the involvement of external users in the monitoring process, was also discussed during the training. Read more... Source: The organization's page in the social network