Epress.am News from Armenia
Two Georgian newspapers, Rezonansi (“Resonance”) and Alia, today took action in defense of photographers arrested on charges of collaborating with the Russian intelligence service, reports Interfax news agency. In the papers’ Jul. 12 issue, photographs of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and other officials were covered in black square.
The following caption accompanied the photos: “There should’ve been a photo here, but the photojournalists are arrested.”
One of the photographers who was arrested, Giorgi Abdaladze, who works with Alia, had called to organize such a form of protest. Georgian journalists and a number of political parties have already held several protests in support of the accused photojournalists. The next rally will be held outside the parliament building on the evening of Jul. 12, reports GHN news agency.
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).