Tbilisi. Within the scope of its new program – Watchdog Journalism for Change – Europe Foundation (EPF) is pleased to announce a grant competition to provide legal aid to journalists and media outlets. The grant is designed to ensure that organizations with experience and expertise in media law and in providing legal advice to various media sources receive Europe Foundation support, enabling them to offer free legal counsel to those journalists and media outlets which pursue investigative reporting. Europe Foundation will fund those projects designed (1) to raise the awareness of journalists and media organizations regarding their rights and obligations; (2) to provide investigative journalists with any legal counsel they may need in the performance of their duties; and (3) to represent the legal interests of journalists and media organizations in dealing with the courts and administrative bodies. Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) presented the second interim report on monitoring of the pre-election period of the October 31, 2020 elections of the Parliament of Georgia to public today. The second interim report focuses on the period from July 5 to August 3, 2020. It also covers individual cases that were initiated before July 5 and continued during the monitoring period or became known within the monitoring period. ISFED has been monitoring the pre-election period of the October 31, 2020 elections of the Parliament of Georgia since June 1. The monitoring is carried out with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European Union. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) has revealed 34 Facebook pages that act coordinated, non-authentically and are affiliated with “Alt-Info”, an organization disseminating propaganda narratives. “Alt-Info” calls itself an alternative source of information, while in reality it is engaged in anti-liberal, anti-immigration, anti-LGBTQI community and anti-Western propaganda”, - is stated in the report presented by ISFED, - “ISFED has revealed a coordinated action of “Alt-Info” on Facebook, through which the organization attempts to disseminate its content to Facebook users in a disguised and massive way. Currently, the main tool of “Alt-Info” is sharing of online video programs on 34 Facebook pages that are connected with it, of which 12 are openly, while 22 - covertly affiliated with “Alt-Info”. Besides 34 pages, there have been identified 25 public groups, in which “Alt-Info” news is actively shared, 7 of them are closely coordinated and covertly engage in “Alt-Info” propaganda. 22 “Alt-Info” covertly disseminating pages have a total of 365,549, while 15 officially operating pages - 157,640 subscribers. 7 closely coordinated groups unite a total of 169,734 users, while remaining 18 groups have a total of 777,679 members”. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. There was conducted a three-day CSRDG organized training on the topic of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement.  The training was held within the framework of the project “Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” with the support of the European Union and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS).  Read more…  Source: The website of the organization in a social network

In partnership with the Georgia Red Cross Society and the UNFPA Georgia a socio-economic response to the COVID-19 challenges has been launched.  The project is being implemented in 4 target municipalities of Georgia. With the significant support from the UNFPA at this stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Georgia Red Cross Society will distribute food and hygiene parcels to vulnerable single older people over 60 years of age.  Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

From August 10th, every day, at 21:00, ‘Knowledge Café’, invites everyone to listen tales online. To watch this new project visit a link. Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

Tbilisi. Within the framework of its parliamentary monitoring activities, Transparency International Georgia (TI) assessed the performance of the Parliament in the period covering January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019.  “2019 was a year of active political events and turmoil. There were a number of notable events throughout the year, which has led to public outcry. Parliamentary proceedings were carried out against the background of public protests. Due to various political confrontations, the composition of the Parliament changed; a number of MPs left the parliamentary majority, which has resulted in the breakdown of the minority as per the rules of Procedure. Moreover, the parliamentary opposition actively used the boycott mechanism during the autumn session. These events have all affected the regular functioning of the legislature”, - Is mentioned in the information the TI published.  Read more…   Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to the fact of dismissal of employees from Adjara Public Broadcaster and considers that their dismissal is one more obvious example of persecution of employees having critical attitude towards Director and the management of Public Broadcaster.  “Based on the initial legal evaluation, we consider that the decision of Director of the broadcaster is a legally unjustifiable one, which, in turn, clearly shows the approach of the management of the broadcaster to neutralize critically minded journalists of the broadcaster by all possible means and apply the most tough sanction like dismissal to punish them exemplarily”, - is noted in the statement released by EMC.  Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Part of civil society organizations releases a statement in regard to a verdict of guilty handed down against Giorgi Rurua by the Tbilisi City Court. “The ongoing criminal case against Giorgi Rurua attracted attention of media, public and political spectrum since the day of his detention. In parallel with the court proceeding, and especially during the last period of time, critical statements were made by representatives of partner states of Georgia more frequently. In these statements, directly or indirectly, the ongoing investigation against Giorgi Rurua has been associated with political motives of the Government. Taking this into account, it should be noted that one of the conditions of the March 8 agreement was to not use justice for political purposes, part of which was also the case of Giorgi Rurua”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. EMC published an infographic - Implementation of the Judicial Strategy and the Action Plan.  “Based on the requirements set forth in the EU-Georgia Association Agenda, on May 29, 2017, after nearly a year of work, the High Council of Justice of Georgia approved the 2017- 2021 Judicial Strategy and its Implementation Action Plan for 2017-2018. Both monitoring process shows that the High Council of Justice does not pay sufficient attention to thorough implementation of the Strategy and the Action Plan and often concrete activities are only formally fulfilled, while its substantive mission – qualitative improvement of administration of justice, remains unattended by agencies responsible for implementation of the Action Plan”, - is told in the information the EMC published.  Read more  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. On July 30, 2020, the Constitutional Court of Georgia rejected the constitutional claims of the Public Defender of Georgia, which concerned the rule on the selection of Supreme Court judicial candidates by the High Council of Justice for the submission to the Parliament of Georgia.  “It is extremely alarming that the Constitutional Court did not consider our constitutional claim and did not repeal the norm that allows incompetent and dishonest judges to be nominated as judicial candidates of the Supreme Court to the Parliament of Georgia against the constitutional requirements”, - the Public Defender said, - “The 30 July decision of the Constitutional Court harms the most important principles of transparency of justice and trust towards the judiciary, which are directly related to the protection of fundamental rights in Georgia”.  Read more Source: The web-page of the organization

The web portal CsoGeorgia.org releases a weekly newsletter of grants competition, contests, vacancies, fellowships and tenders for civil society organizations and for any interested person. Newsletter...

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations respond to general and blanket restrictions imposed by security services on access of representatives of media, civil society and political parties to villages neighboring an occupied Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia and call on the Government to change a regime of movement that is against human rights. “It is almost a year since August 30, 2019 that there has been restricted movement and work of civil society representatives, media, as well as political parties in the villages surrounding an occupied Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia. Access related restrictions apply also those villages where our state has full control”, - is noted in the released statement, - “We call on the Government of Georgia to lift the blanket restriction on access of media, civil society and politicians to the occupation line and villages around it; develop approaches based on objective criteria, which do not go beyond legitimate frames of restriction on freedom of movement and expression”. Read more… Source: https://www.gyla.ge

Tbilisi. After a long break, NDI published a new poll results regarding attitudes towards COVID-19 and disinformation. New data reflects data collected between June 26-30, through telephone interviews with a nationwide representative sample of Georgia’s adult population, excluding occupied territories that included 1,550 completed interviews. Recearch  Read more  Source: The page in the social network

Delegation of the European Union to Georgia began Campaign on EU support to Georgian farmers – “A Good Harvest”.  “Over the course of the next two weeks, we told you how farmers can have 40% larger yields with 30% lower costs, and secure against challenges like drought. The EU together with the FAO have been working across the country teaching modern farming approaches, and these are the results farmers are seeing”, - is mentioned in the information the Delegation of the European Union spread.  Read more   Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. “Rights Georgia”, with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has launched a new project that serves to ensure legal protection and empowerment of foreign migrants living in Georgia. Within the framework of the project, “Rights Georgia” is going to study gaps, existing in foreign migrants rights related legislation and services, and prepare recommendations to eliminate them; provide free legal consultancy to migrants and represent them at court, as well as take care of raising their legal awareness. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Today, the IDFI together with the GYLA presented the results of the interim alternative monitoring reports on the implementation of Public Administration Reform Action Plan for 2019 – 2020.  During the presentation participants discussed the following directions of the PAR Action Plan for 2019 – 2020: Policy Planning and Coordination, Accountability, Public Service Delivery and Public Finances. Read more  Source: The web-page of the organization

Imereti. By the TI outdoor lighting service costs have become more expensive in Kutaisi Municipality. “The number of legal entities created by the Kutaisi Municipality is growing year by year. N(N)LE "Kutganatebi Service" is one of the legal entities created recently by the Municipality. According to the information provided by the Municipality, it was established for cost savings, but the maintenance/operation of the network of outdoor lighting and traffic lights is nowadays more expensive as compared to the previous years”, - mentioned TI. Read more  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. To tackle the impacts of COVID-19, Europe Foundation offered additional support to social enterprises previously awarded grants. Several organizations benefited from this support while dealing with the tasks facing them. “The COVID-19 pandemic weighed particularly heavily on social enterprises due, in large part, to the fact that many operate in the field of tourism or in tourism-related sectors, e.g., traditional crafts and handmade objects. Compounding this, the business models used by social enterprises focuses on employing vulnerable categories. Hence, a large part of their staff are persons with disabilities and are in COVID-19’s higher risk group. Further, social enterprises lack the skills needed to ensure digital transformations, which proved to be a key technical solution during the pandemic. Some social enterprises, however, remained flexible as they tried to navigate through the challenges. Their approaches were designed to respond effectively to the COVID-19 restrictions. Enterprises in the catering and tourism sectors, however, are still confronting insurmountable challenges”, - is mentioned in the information of the Europe Foundation, - “Below are stories on how social enterprises tackled the coronavirus crisis”. Read more  Source: The web-page of the organization

The European Court of Human Rights has received and assigned a case number to the application prepared by the Human Rights Center.  The Human Rights Center applied to the ECtHR regarding the violations of Article 6.3 and Article 13 of the Convention. A principle was violated vis-a-vis the applicant according to which with a purpose of safety of a person, the person shall be notified about the reasons and status he/she is summoned to the investigation bodies in order he/she could envisage the legal consequences of non-appearance.  Read more  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. Today, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) presented a report related to a 2016-2019 monitoring of expenses incurred for remuneration of activities that members and employees of the Central Election Commission of Georgia performed.  The document examines regulations (salary, supplement and bonus/cash reward) and existing practice of labor remuneration for members and managers of the Central Election Commission of Georgia, members of the District Election Commission, staff and supernumeraries. The purpose of the report is to analyze what positive changes have been made in the election administration in terms of payment of labor remuneration and what challenges the institution faces in this regard.  Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a viewpoint of Ekaterine Skhiladze – “Father and mother fight with daggers: Impact of the pandemic on violence against women and domestic violence”. “In Georgia, in the circumstances of the new coronavirus pandemic, challenges of systemic character, existing in the field of prevention of violence against women and domestic violence, as well as protection and assistance of victims, have further aggravated. Complicated economic situation, loss of jobs, closure of child care facilities, restriction of traffic have hit women the most of all. The caregiving burden of women in families has increased, their economic situation has deteriorated, and risks of domestic violence due to longer stays with abusers have increased”, - is stated in the publication. Read more… Source:The website of the organization