Tbilisi writer and publisher Zviad Kvaratskhelia with an associate. Image: Georgian Book Association
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
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‘We’re Concerned About These Apparent Restrictions’
A short message from the Georgian Book Association has made it clear that Intelekti Publishing writer and publisher Zviad Kvaratskhelia was detained by the authorities on Friday morning (October 24), allegedly for blocking Rustaveli Avenue in the Georgian capital city on the previous night.
Intelleckti is the publisher with whom IPA president Gvantsa Jobava has her career, of course, but the International Publishers Association offices in Geneva have made it clear that Kvaratskhelia may not have been arrested in connection with his publishing activity.
In recent nights, the city’s long-running and robust street protests in Tblisli seem to have accelerated, and Rustaveli Avenue is a frequent center of such dynamics. Former president Salome Zourabichvili joined the rally “and tore into the government from the stage, calling it ‘total corruption’ and telling supporters the ‘regime has already lost’ and its ‘days are numbered, She urged crowds to ‘hold on a little longer,” according to a staff report published Sunday in Democracy & Freedom Watch.
In a statement issued to the news media on behalf of the IPA, its Freedom to Publish committee, saying, “While it does not seem that Zviad Kvaratskhelia’s arrest was related to his publishing activity, we’re concerned about the apparent restrictions on the freedom of assembly developing in Georgia and how they might lead to restrictions on freedom of expression.”
In its own short statement, the Georgian Book Association writes, “This arrest is one of the many [detentions] of writers, activists, and intellectuals following the recent amendments to the administrative code of Georgia that make road-blocking and covering one’s face punishable by up to 15 days in detention, while a repeat offence is considered a criminal offense, punishable by up to one year in prison.”
The IPA report indicates Kvaratskhelia was sentenced to three days in prison during the course of Friday night.
Publishing Perspectives is the International Publishers Association’s world media partner. More on the work of the organization is here, more on threats to the freedoms of publishing, reading, and self-expression is here, and more on the Georgian Book Market—a former (2018) Frankfurter Buchmesse guest of honor, you’ll recall—is here.
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