Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to the decision on dismissal of Adjara Public Broadcaster News anchor and reporter Teona Turmanidze and assess it as another example of oppression of critical journalists in the Broadcaster.  The broadcaster management abuses the existing state of emergency, and makes one more step to restrict freedom of expression and opinion and to control editorial policy.

On April 8, 2020, the director of the Adjara Public Broadcaster adopted a Decree N02-03/10 concerning the “Rules of behavior on the internet/social networks for the employees of LEPL Adjara Public Broadcaster Television and Radio”.[1]. According to these rules, Adjara Public Broadcaster employees fully (including during non-working hours) are restricted to freely manage and activate their social networks per their opinion. The employees are restricted to freely publish such photos, videos, or recordings on their social networks which are not owned by the Broadcaster (see Article 2). Also, the employees are banned to express their position about the working procedures and broadcasting processes (see Article 12) and express any opinion on the ongoing political situation in the country (see Article 9). Moreover, the decree obliges every staff member to provide information to his or her direct supervisor, relating to the criticism of the Adjara Broadcaster (see Article 5). The new rules also require fully loyalty from the employees (see Article 13) and contain a vague provision that the information spread by the broadcaster employee must not damage the Broadcaster’s reputation (see Article 14).

On April 21, 2020, disciplinary proceedings were commenced against the Anchor/reporter of News program, Teona Turmanidze and she was temporarily dismissed from the air due to her critical Facebook post published on April 14. In the public post, Teona expressed her discontent concerning the Broadcaster’s management decision on web-platform and declared that Public Broadcaster should serve to the public and not to several people, otherwise such broadcaster mush be abolished.

It should be noted that the new regulations on the behavior in social networks were introduced to the Broadcaster employees only on April 20, 2020, via Broadcaster’s web-portal. The decree was prepared and adopted by the Director unilaterally, the employees and the professional union were not informed in advance, they had no opportunity to express their opinion and remarks, which severely violates the Labor legislation and internal rules of  the Broadcaster.

The disciplinary proceedings against Teona Turmanidze were commenced concerning the Facebook post of 14 April, before such regulations were informed to her. According to the existing labor legislation, it is inadmissible to impose liability to the employee for the acts prescribed under internal rules, which were not in advance informed to him/her for objective reasons, was not familiar to the internal rules and/or its amendments.

According to the abovementioned, it is undoubtful that disciplinary proceedings against Teona Turmanidze for her Facebook post is the persecution due to her opinion and expression and indicates to the censorship in the Public Broadcaster. Furthermore, Teona is a member of the alternative professional union and openly criticizes problematic decisions taken by the new management.

It should be also noted, that adopted rules on behavior in social networks violate the Constitution of Georgia, also Georgian law on Freedom of Expression and International Conventions. According to the legislation in force, freedom of opinion is protected with absolute guarantees. The Georgian Law on Broadcaster prohibits the expression of personal opinion/position in the programs, but it does not prescribe any restriction for the journalists to express their opinion in their private space, as such matter is beyond the Broadcaster’s competence. Due to the existing legislative requirements, the director of the Public Broadcaster does not have a right to restrict by his act or to regulate in any way differently the freedom of speech and expression than guaranteed under the law and the Constitution, for whatever purpose he should not act. Furthermore, the large majority of the Decree provisions are vague and unpredictable and contain high risks of arbitrariness, which in light of the general inadmissibility of the substantive regulation of the freedom of expression, involves extremely high risks of its severe violation.

At the same time, it is clear that the purpose of this act is to weaken the criticism and activities of the unique professional union in the Broadcaster, and it aims to have a freezing effect on other employees who criticize management. The regulations and control practices of this degree fundamentally opposes an idea of ​​a Public Broadcaster, which is built on the principles of pluralism, democracy, and makes it impossible to create independent content and editorial policies.

During the last three months, Broadcaster’s management dismissed an important part of broadcaster key employees in the News section or unreasonably moved them to other positions, closed critical show “Hashtag” and according to our information, disciplinary proceedings are ongoing against several other employees. Such decisions were critically assessed by local [2] and international organizations (OSCE, CoE, RWB). The violation of labor rights is being litigated by the broadcasters former employees in the court. [3] 

EMC calls to:

The Director of Adjara Public Broadcaster:

• Abolish the illegal decree concerning the rules of behavior, cease the severe violation of journalist’s labor rights and oppression due to their opinion and expression;
• Timely return Teona Turmanidze to her position and cease unreasonable disciplinary proceedings.

Adjara High Council:

• To actively engage and study the harsh processes in the Adjara Public Broadcaster, which violates an idea and principles of Public Broadcaster, journalist’s rights and to provide active parliamentary control;
• Discuss the political liability of the Advisory Board in light of the ongoing crisis in the Broadcaster.

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