“Brussels has removed its mask of democracy, and it has been revealed that its true aim is not the protection of the media but its restriction and the silencing of unwanted voices,” declared MP Levan Makhashvili, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on European Integration.

Makhashvili was asked about the European Parliament’s decision to suspend the accreditation of broadcasters Imedi, Rustavi 2, and PosTV for one year.

“A most revealing development has taken place. Brussels has finally removed its mask of democracy. It has become apparent that all the appeals and the fine words inscribed in resolutions about protecting democracy, media pluralism, and media freedom were nothing but a farce. It turns out that the finest European standard is not media freedom and affording the media the maximum possible latitude, but quite the opposite: restricting the media, silencing unwanted voices, and casting them out. This decision points to the double standard that Brussels has long applied, and continues to apply, in its dealings with Georgia, namely that no media rules whatsoever should exist in Georgia, and that this or that outlet may spread unbridled disinformation with impunity, not to be touched or even called out for it. Yet when it comes to the straightforward act of requesting and conducting an interview, it transpires that a media outlet’s accreditation must be suspended for an entire year on those grounds. With this particular decision, Brussels has removed its mask of democracy, and it has been revealed that its true aim is not the protection of the media but its restriction and the silencing of unwanted voices,” Levan Makhashvili declared.

Makhashvili was then asked a subsequent question, highlighting that representatives of the European Parliament are calling for sanctions to be imposed on the leadership of the Georgian Public Broadcaster.

According to Makhashvili, Brussels is employing various methods to suppress media outlets that speak candidly about the truth.

“This too is a continuation of the efforts of recent months, the aim of which is to constrain and create maximum difficulties for media outlets that endeavour to convey the truth to the public. For some, that truth may be unwelcome, unacceptable, disagreeable, but it is reality nonetheless. When these outlets speak about that reality, Brussels seek to restrict them by whatever means are at hand, in some cases through visa instruments, in others through accreditation, in others still through direct resolutions and calls for sanctions to be imposed upon them. In the final analysis, this says far more about those issuing such calls, about what their true intentions and objectives actually are, than it does about any Georgian media outlet,” Makhashvili remarked.