Needs of ethnic minorities, Public Broadcaster and the pandemic
Tbilisi. Today, Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) is going to presents to the public a study – “Needs of ethnic minorities, Public Broadcaster and the pandemic”.
“On March 23, 2020, Marneuli and Bolnisi, two regions densely populated with ethnic minorities, were closed due to internal spread of the new coronavirus (Radio Liberty, 2020). A light panic that followed the threat of uncontrolled spread of the virus in the country, soon transitioned into another wave of xenophobia and nationalism, which fact was most clearly reflected in comments of users in a social network Facebook (Kevanishvili, 2020). During the following days, population, locked up in regions declared as “red zones”, had to simultaneously fight against the coronavirus, the fear of economic poverty and ethno-nationalism. Instead of spending efforts of local activists on dissemination of information related to the coronavirus, prevention of the virus and avoiding economic complications, they had to launch an internet campaign, main message of which was – “I am a citizen of Georgia”, - is stated in the introduction to the study.
Source: The website of the organization
