Five mistakes of Georgia reporting

This post was inspired by Five Worst Clichés of Russia Reporting.

For past couple of years Georgia is in western media almost every week, if not many times a week. Most of the coverage is about Georgia’s reforms, its food & wines, Georgia as a tourism destination, 2008 Georgia-Russia War, etc. and etc. Those articles later appear in local media: “Another article on Georgian reforms in NYTimes” or “Financial Times about Georgia’s economic growth.” And of course all of this coverage makes Georgians happy just like any other mention on web, for example this:

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Tbilisi Hangout 011

In the eleventh edition of Tbilisi Hangout Mirian Jugheli, Nick Clayton and Mathias Huter of Transparency International Georgia talk about Georgian media, net freedom, “cohabitation”, ownership transparency, February 8 National Library Incident, etc.

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Georgia: Politicians fistfight Live on TV

Ladies and gentlemen, in the left corner, member of the Parliament, Sergo Ratiani, United National Movement.

aand..

In the right corner, member of the Parliament, Koba Davitashvili, Georgian Dream:

Want to know why did they fight? Read this article

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Google Voice lists Abkhazia as Russia

Whenever you’re abroad for a long time you look for different ways to contact your family every once in a while (Skype, landline, etc.). A Georgian friend of mine who lives in Bulgaria wanted to call home and he decided to use Google Voice (A telecommunication service from Google). But before doing so he checked call rates. By doing this he suddenly discovered that Google Voice lists Abkhazia as one of the rates for calling Russia.

In addition to this strange fact it turns out that the fee for Abkhazia is the highest in the list. I decided to write Google Voice and ask them why do they list Abkhazia as an option for Russia. I am waiting for their answer and as soon as they reply I’ll post it here.

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Death Rate in Georgian Prisons [INFOGRAPHIC]

JumpStart Georgia, an NGO which applies open-source technologies to open up public data has launched a new project called Feradi.info.

Feradi.info is a collection of news and data that is brought to you visually; The website calls all interested individuals to share their own visuals or ideas. So far JumpStart has posted two infographics about the death rate in Georgian penitentiary system. Information is based on an annual report presented by the Public Defender’s office of Georgia. According to the data 653 inmates died in the period 2006-2011, 1/3 of them because of tuberculosis.

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Tbilisi Hangout: Live talk on all things related to Georgia

Starting from November 28, Every Wednesday at 20:00 (Tbilisi time) me and Nicholas Clayton will talk about current affairs of Georgia on Google Hangout. The live webcast is called Tbilisi Hangout and it is about politics, society, sports and whatever nonsense we find interesting. We are trying to make it as interactive as possible, hence you can ask questions or leave comments, decide what you would like to hear next week and also join us with your web camera. Occasionally we will be coming live from various locations like bars, offices, streets, etc. You can subscribe to this YouTube channel in order to be updated about upcoming hangouts.

Here’s the first Tbilisi Hangout. In this episode we talk about anti-Ivansivhili articles in western media, global amnesty, mandatory ID cards, Georgia rugby, etc. let us know what you think.

 

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Udabno – a village near Georgia-Azerbaijan Border [PHOTOS]

Udabno (Desert in English) is a last village on a way to David Gareja Monastery, part of which is disputed between Georgia and Azerbaijan. Approximately 200 families live in Udabno, big part of them are Svans who moved here in the beginning of 90′s because of an ecological disaster. The village does not have a doctor and in case of emergency they have to call one that lives in Sagarejo.

Udabno has a water problem, according to local school staff last time they had water was three weeks ago and the quality was so poor that two children suffered severe water-poisoning.

Udabno public school is in a poor condition, classrooms are heated by wood stoves and only principal’s cabinet has proper windows. 120 students go to the local school ten of them are in the last 12th grade and only three in the 11th grade.

Local dance teacher Natia Sabashvili gives classes 3 times a week for 15GEL a month ($9) and because of an absent dance studio she has to move from hall to hall. These photos were taken in the local school’s sports hall that has no heating, electricity, fixed windows, etc.

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