Georgia: Exiled Belarusian journalist and Armenian journalist denied entry without explanation

On 15 Sep­tem­ber, Belaru­sian jour­nal­ist Andrei Mialesh­ka was denied entry to Geor­gia, where he has lived for the past three years after fac­ing polit­i­cal per­se­cu­tion in Belarus. On 17 Sep­tem­ber, Armen­ian jour­nal­ist Arsen Kharatyan, edi­tor-in-chief of an inde­pen­dent non-prof­it bilin­gual Geor­gian-Arme­nia media plat­form Aliq Media based in Tbil­isi, was also denied entry to Geor­gia. The Inter­na­tion­al and Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tions of Jour­nal­ists (IFJ-EFJ) con­demn the denial of entry of both jour­nal­ists and call on the Geor­gian author­i­ties to uphold free­dom of access for all jour­nal­ists.

Cred­its: From the archive of Andrei Mialesh­ka and Arsen Kharatyan / Can­va

Andrei Mialesh­ka was return­ing from Poland to Geor­gia with his daugh­ter and was barred from enter­ing at the air­port in Kutaisi, on 15 Sep­tem­ber. He has been liv­ing in Geor­gia since he was polit­i­cal­ly per­se­cut­ed in Belarus and forced to leave the coun­try. On arrival at Kutaisi air­port, on 15 Sep­tem­ber, the jour­nal­ist was refused entry by Geor­gian bor­der guards. The offi­cial rea­son for his denial was cit­ed as “oth­er cas­es envis­aged by Geor­gian leg­is­la­tion.” The jour­nal­ist report­ed on his social media that he and his daugh­ter were locked in a room at the air­port and had their pass­ports con­fis­cat­ed. 

“They will give us our pass­ports back when we go to Poland. They are not say­ing any­thing else,” the jour­nal­ist told the press. Mialesh­ka fur­ther explained he tried to apply for asy­lum in Geor­gia, but “there is no way to do this with­out pass­ports.” 

The jour­nal­ist was sent back to War­saw, Poland, with his daugh­ter on 16 Sep­tem­ber, leav­ing his wife and anoth­er child in Geor­gia.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ) imme­di­ate­ly sup­port­ed his case. “BAJ is very con­cerned about the sit­u­a­tion with the non-admis­sion of Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists to Geor­gia. Espe­cial­ly when these peo­ple have already suf­fered polit­i­cal per­se­cu­tion in Belarus. This is not the only prob­lem­at­ic sit­u­a­tion in Geor­gia. Despite for­mal open­ness, Geor­gia prac­ti­cal­ly does not issue res­i­dence per­mits to inde­pen­dent Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists and any well-known Belaru­sians. And the lat­est sit­u­a­tion with Andrei makes us urge our col­leagues to think about leav­ing Geor­gia for secu­ri­ty rea­sons. Unfor­tu­nate­ly for us, Geor­gia is no longer a safe coun­try for Belaru­sian col­leagues,” said Barys Haret­s­ki, BAJ Deputy chair­per­son.

On 17 Sep­tem­ber, Arsen Kharatyan was held up for 4 hours by Geor­gian bor­der guards and forced to go back to Europe with no expla­na­tion. He was denied entry even though he had a tick­et for a con­nect­ing flight from Tbil­isi to Yere­van the next day, 18 Sep­tem­ber. “No one has explained to me the rea­son why I was denied entry to Geor­gia, where I lived for over 5 years, cre­at­ed a media, co-found­ed var­i­ous organ­i­sa­tions, helped build bridges between Arme­nia and Geor­gia,” wrote Kharatyan in his social media.

“Deten­tion of for­eign jour­nal­ists by Geor­gian bor­der guards has a polit­i­cal char­ac­ter,” react­ed Zvi­ad Pochkua, chair­man of the Inde­pen­dent Asso­ci­a­tion of Geor­gian Jour­nal­ists (IAGJ). “Both jour­nal­ists were liv­ing in Geor­gia for a long time. These restric­tions for jour­nal­ists to enter the coun­try dur­ing the elec­tion cam­paign neg­a­tive­ly affect the trans­paren­cy of these elec­tions. We call on the author­i­ties to lift these restric­tions”.

“This is not the first case of jour­nal­ists not being allowed to enter Geor­gia with­out expla­na­tion. The IFJ-EFJ have doc­u­ment­ed around ten cas­es over the last four years. Geor­gia must put an end to this prac­tice, which amounts to cen­sor­ship and com­pro­mis­es the safe­ty of jour­nal­ists in exile.”