Protest Outside Moscow’s Georgian Embassy in Defense of Arrested Photographers

A demonstration will take place Friday outside the Georgian Embassy in Moscow in support of the four Georgian photographers arrested on charges of spying. In the opinion of demo organizers, the photographers’ arrest is “the result of persecution for distributing journalistic photographs” and charges of espionage are simply ridiculous, reports Russian-language news source Gazeta.ru.

Rally organizers suggest that the persecution of photojournalists, in fact, may be due to Georgian officials’ dissatisfaction of their independent stance in covering the events in Georgia in the spring.

Recall, four Georgian photojournalists were arrested on Jul. 7 on charges of espionage. Two of the arrested were state employees, “one with close access to the President. Irakli Gedenidze worked as a personal photographer of President Saakashvili and the other, Giorgi Abdaladze, a freelance photographer, was hired by the Georgian Foreign Ministry,” said Georgian presidential spokesperson Manan Manjgaladze last week.

The other two photographers are Natia Gedenidze, wife of Irakli Gedenidze, who is also a photographer working with Tbilisi-based newspaper PrimeTime, and Zurab Kurtsikidze, a photographer for the European Pressphoto Agency (epa).