“As long as Samkhretis Karibche (Eng. Southern Gateway) has at least one reader, it will continue to work for that one person and spend do its fullest,” says Gulo Kokhodze, director of the bilingual media outlet based in Samtskhe-Javakheti.
The story of Samkhretis Karibche began in 2004, in Samtskhe-Javakheti. In the region, where a large part of ethnic Armenian Georgians live, they mostly speak Armenian and Russian, often there is a problem with knowledge of the Georgian language, and in some cases the most accessible way to get information is through Russian television channels, or propaganda broadcasters. 21 years ago, Samkhretis Karibche decided that it was necessary to provide reliable information to the residents of the region in both Armenian and Georgian, and thus at least partially fill the gap.
“Even the village transport drivers knew us, we had a very good relationship and were happy to bring information to the population, they helped us completely selflessly.”
Initially, they published a newspaper that was distributed in all six municipalities of the region. Gulo tells us that the newspaper was typed in Akhaltsikhe [the assembly of the visual part of the newspaper], then sent to the printing house in Tbilisi, and once a week, every Monday, the printed issue was delivered to the drivers of minibuses in the region.
“I remember well that when the newspapers arrived folded into squares, the drivers already knew us. We would take them to the office and separate them according to the number we needed to distribute to the municipalities. We would send them to all the municipalities according to the number, and from the station we would take them back to the drivers, and the village transport drivers would also know us. We had a very good relationship and they were happy to bring information to the population, and they would help us completely selflessly.”
Along with distributing newspapers, they often met with the population – they personally heard from them about their difficulties, what problems existed in different municipalities, and as Gulo tells us, sharing challenges made people living in different municipalities better understand each other’s hardships.
“If a village in Adigeni municipality thought that the problem in its village was unique to it, it turned out that the same thing was happening in the villages of Ninotsminda. The unity of this problem made the population of these villages more sensitive and people got to know each other better. This was one of the important results of our work.”
Gulo says that access to information was more difficult at that time, and roads and transportation were worse, so they became heroes of information dissemination, and this gave them great strength and energy. They wrote about social problems, had close contact with the locals, and this instilled trust in the population. Citizens continued to address the Samkhretis Karibche team even more boldly and on a wider range of issues.
“They started talking about even more important problems, such as early marriage, kidnapping, women’s problems, domestic violence. Women were already speaking out about this and telling us about it, and naturally these materials were also published in the newspaper,” Gulo notes, adding that the audience and we raised each other — the audience’s awareness grew and they opened up to provide more information, and we also wrote about problems and spoke publicly, including even on topics that were previously taboo.”
Years later, they gradually moved from publishing a newspaper to operating a website. Today, Samkhretis Karibche is no longer published in print, which, according to Gulo, has brought them wider recognition. However, she also says with disappointment that after the newspaper closed, people, mostly elderly people, who were attached to the newspaper and this was an indispensable opportunity for them to get information, often visited the office.
She recalls with particular pride the work they did to clarify religious issues, including the events surrounding the Mokhi and Tchela minarets — “Those stories and work have become a documentary archive, very important for the history of Georgia and, naturally, for us as well.”
The team of Samkhretis Karibche was always completed based on whether or not there was a consensus of values among people. What was especially important was that a person had to have the desire to cover issues objectively, write impartially, and be motivated to stand aside from influences. According to Gulo, it was precisely such people who were added to their ranks and “Samkhretis Karibche stands on the backs of such people.”
She recalls that initially they had no problems with the local government, they provided public information and did not refuse to comment, but over time, as the materials of Samkhretis Karibche touched on a number of challenges in more depth and they began to prepare articles in an investigative direction, as well as work, for example, on corruption, women’s rights, including the so-called kidnapping, the door of the local government was closed to them. This continues to this day, not only is public information closed to them [and in fact to all critical media], but they even refuse to comment.
According to Gulo, working in the region has its pros and cons — for an interested journalist, Samtskhe-Javakheti is a space where there is religious diversity and ethnic diversity, as well as a variety of experiences, but at the same time, it is difficult to understand all this and maintain a golden mean when writing. However, she considers the numerous attempts at intimidation and pressure over the years to be especially difficult.
“There were constant intimidations, including from law enforcement agencies – we had confrontations with law enforcement agencies many times, they even organized a demonstration in front of the office, and us, journalists were standing here, this law enforcement agency was there, and only the truth was on our side. There were also people breaking into the office, calls last year, not only to journalists, but also to their family members, and to this day we don’t know what the calls were, who was threatening us. There was violence, threats, intimidation, but Samkhretis Karibche still continued to operate. Today we have a different picture, because we don’t know whether we will exist tomorrow or not.”
She says that recent laws [currently, several laws are in effect that pose a threat to media funded with the support of international organizations: the Law on Grants; the so-called Russian Law, plus a provision in the Law on Broadcasting that prohibits receiving foreign funding] have cast doubt on the fate of Samkhretis Karibche, but they are not going to stop as long as they have readers.
“As long as we can, as long as we have an audience that trusts us, as long as people come to our door, want to understand information, and bring their problems to us, we will definitely work.”
The reason is simple: in a region where there is often no alternative to Russian television channels, people want to receive unbiased, honest information in a language they understand.
“The population, which receives information only from Russian-language television, should not be left alone, and that is why we offer them news in Armenian. We also had a radio, which we have temporarily stopped, but we provided information programs daily, twice a day, to the Armenian-speaking population, who do not have the luxury of having information in their own language. When we go to the highland villages and ask them what information they have, we see that they do not know Georgian, they only know Russian, they did not have the luxury of learning Georgian, they worked, farmed, and supported their families at the same time, so it is necessary to provide information in Armenian.”
A few months ago, the office of Samkhretis Karibche was in danger of closing and a “for rent” sign was put on the building, but the support of other media outlets helped the organization keep the office. In particular, donations received within the framework of the The Lights Must Stay On campaign supporting 22 online media outlets were fully distributed to regional media outlets.
“You can’t imagine how we pulled down the rental notices from the doors and windows in seconds. […] The Lights Must Stay On is not just a campaign, it’s a story about solidarity, about supporting people, about loving each other more, about coming together,” Gulo wrote on Facebook at the time.
Today, independent online media in Georgia is struggling to survive. The repressive regime is trying to suppress voices that speak the truth. A unified platform has been created to support independent media: sinatle.media.
22 online media outlets from all over Georgia have come together to defend what belongs to us all: free speech and democracy. Among the online media outlets participating in the campaign is Samkhertis Karibche.
Your support is crucial in this fight. Donate to support independent online media and help us spread the word.
Transfer to support online media, recipient: “People’s Source”:
- TBC Bank: #GE76TB7548536080100013
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