New York, September 19, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Georgian authorities to allow Belarusian journalist Andrei Mialeshka and Armenian journalist Arsen Kharatyan, who were denied entry into Georgia in recent days, to enter the country and work safely.
“By refusing Andrei Mialeshka and Arsen Kharatyan entry to Georgia on obscure grounds, the Georgian authorities are sending a worrying signal to all journalists who sought refuge in the country or use it as a base for their work,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Georgian authorities should allow Mialeshka and Kharatyan to enter the country and ensure that Georgia is a safe place for independent journalists.”
On Monday, border guards at the airport in the western Georgian city of Kutaisi held Mialeshka, a freelance reporter working with independent Belarusian media, for a day after denying him and his 11-year-old daughter entry when they arrived from Poland.
Authorities gave Mialeshka, who has been living in Georgia for the last three years, a document stating that he was not allowed to enter under “other cases envisaged by Georgian legislation,” confiscated his and his daughter’s passports, and placed them in a room for deportees, the journalist posted on his Facebook page and told Radio Svaboda, the Belarusian service of U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, while being detained.
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After Radio Svaboda published the interview, airport employees took away their phones and a laptop, saying, “You talk too much.” Mialeshka and his daughter were put on a plane back to Poland on Monday evening.
CPJ is also investigating the denial of entry Tuesday of Kharatyan, the founder of independent Armenian-languageoutlet AliQ Media, based in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi. Kharatyan told CPJ that he was traveling to Georgia for work from Luxembourg when immigration authorities denied him entry at Tbilisi international airport and gave him the same written refusal as Mialeshka. After being held for four hours, he was sent on a plane back to Luxembourg.
Authorities have previously denied entry to several Russian journalists following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
CPJ sent a request for comment to the Georgian Interior Ministry via an online form but did not immediately receive a reply.
Committee to Protect Journalists
