Two French journalists denied entry to Georgia after covering protests

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By Felix Light

(Reuters) -Two French journalists were refused entry to Georgia in recent months after covering anti-government protests in the South Caucasus nation, which critics say has taken an authoritarian and pro-Russian turn.

Photojournalist Jerome Chobeaux and Clement Girardot, a freelance reporter who has worked for Le Monde and Al Jazeera, were denied entry at Tbilisi airport in March and February respectively, the Reporters Without Borders watchdog said.

Georgia’s interior ministry and border police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Both journalists had covered street protests and a crackdown that came after Georgia’s October parliamentary election, which opposition supporters say was rigged.

They told Reuters that they had been offered no explanation of why they were refused entry to Georgia, and that they were challenging their bans in court.

Girardot said that he had been told he was on an interior ministry stop list. He said it was “almost certainly linked to (his) work as a journalist.”

Georgian authorities say the election, which saw the ruling Georgian Dream party retain power, was free and fair.

Georgian media have reported that several other foreigners, including some long-term residents of Georgia, have been denied entry to the country since the election. Some have linked their entry bans to having attended anti-government protests.

In the run-up to the vote, two other Western reporters, one from Switzerland and another from Czechia, were denied entry.

Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Georgian border guards have repeatedly denied entry to Russian critics of the Kremlin, including journalists, cultural figures and allies of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Traditionally among the most democratic and pro-Western of the Soviet Union’s successor states, Georgia has since the start of the war in Ukraine deepened ties with Russia, blaming Kyiv and its Western backers for the conflict.

The shift in policy, which has included a draconian law on “foreign agents”, curbs on LGBT rights, and the freezing of Georgia’s long-standing European Union membership bid, is widely seen as spearheaded by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, an ex-prime minister regarded as the country’s de facto leader.

(Reporting by Felix LightEditing by Ros Russell)