Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Georgia's Surveillance Society

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Georgia's Surveillance Society

    GEORGIA'S SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY
    By Inga Alavidze in Tbilisi

    Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
    Nov 30 2006

    Fears grow as secret surveillance material is increasingly aired
    in public.

    Following the local elections in Georgia in October, the Rustavi-2
    television station broadcast a compromising video of opposition Koba
    Davitashvili, leader of the opposition Conservative Party.

    The video, which had been shot in a restaurant in Tbilisi, apparently
    showed Davitashvili promising his interlocutor a place on his party's
    election list in exchange for 20,000 US dollars.

    Soon afterwards, a scandal broke out when a secret video recording
    exposed corruption in the United State Fund for Social Insurance,
    as a result of which top officials found themselves behind bars.

    In another expose, a secret video camera installed in parliament
    deputy Gia Nutsubidze's room showed footage of him seemingly handing
    over bribe to a senior education ministry official.

    In the summer, an allegedly secret audio recording of a phone
    conversation between fugitive paramilitary leader Emzar Kvitsiani
    and opposition politician Irakly Batiashvili was the pretext for
    arresting Batiashvili on charges of high treason.

    These are just four instances in a long list of cases in which the
    secrets of prominent people have been exposed with the help of secret
    recordings, broadcast to the public.

    According to the Georgian constitution, "everyone's private life,
    place of personal activity, personal records, correspondence,
    communication by phone or by other technical means, as well as messages
    received through technical means are inviolable. Restriction of the
    aforementioned rights is permissible by a court decision or also
    without such a decision in the case of urgent necessity provided for
    by law".

    The second part of this apparently gives license to the law enforcement
    agencies to use surveillance as a weapon.

    Elene Tevdoradze, a member of parliament with the ruling party and
    chairwoman of the Parliament Human Rights Committee, said she thought
    surveillance was justified.

    "As a human rights activist, I categorically oppose the interference
    in people's personal lives," she said. "However, given the current
    situation in this country, we have to tolerate a lot of things if
    we want to be protected against the threats to our country. I would
    like to remind you that secret recordings have been legalised in the
    United States and the United Kingdom to combat terrorism effectively."

    However, Tevdoradze herself admitted that she feels psychologically
    uncomfortable when she talks on the phone, as someone may be tapping
    her too. And lawyers and human rights activists are concerned about
    both the extent and the legality of the surveillance tactics being
    used."

    Lawyer Malkhaz Jangirashvili said that almost all the evidence in
    the criminal cases that he is currently dealing with comes from
    secret recordings.

    "Ninety per cent of my cases and the cases of my colleagues are
    deliberately provoked, by which I mean that a tapping device is
    installed and a conversation is provoked," he told IWPR. "Even neutral
    conversations that have nothing to do with a crime can be regarded as
    evidence. On the whole all the cases that get solved are underpinned
    by this method."

    Jangirashvili said that tapes are also forged and, "due to the lack of
    technical means and qualified specialists, no high-quality examination
    of recordings is provided".

    He argues that secret tapping is widely used because of a lack of
    professionalism.

    "The investigation and operational service are unable to collect any
    other kind of proof, as this is quite a labour-intensive process and
    needs a certain level of professionalism," he said. "This is why they
    take the easy path of secret recordings, as otherwise they would be
    unable to solve cases."

    Legal experts are also concerned about the way the secret recordings
    are made public via the media. The law enforcement agencies frequently
    use them as part of their publicity campaigns, with the media seemingly
    having no objection to broadcasting the material.

    "The media are basically working for the law enforcement agencies,"
    said Republican Party leader and lawyer Tinatin Khidasheli.

    "Journalists have normal channels of information closed to them but
    the media allows itself to be used by the security agencies.

    "For example, by making public the absolutely illegal recording
    involving Koba Davitashvili, the media promoted ethnic enmity - in
    the recording, Davitashvili [allegedly] used the word 'Armenian'
    in an insulting manner. This is a classic example of the lack of
    professionalism. The media would have been held responsible for this
    in any civilised country."

    Khidasheli cited examples of hidden cameras and phone tapping also
    being used in internal political battles. For example, prisons boss
    Bacho Akhalaia who has a difficult relationship with the human rights
    ombudsman Sozar Subari, made public a recording of an apparent phone
    conversation between a representative of the ombudsman and a former
    prisoner who allegedly spoke about giving a bribe to a prison guard.

    Opposition parliamentary deputy Kakha Kukava says he is not against
    secret recordings if they are obtained legally. "But everything that
    we see on television is recorded illegally, and it is even edited in
    some cases," he said.

    Kukava said his main worry was that it was instilling a "fear syndrome"
    amongst the public. "Many citizens who come to me as a deputy for
    help are afraid to speak about their problems on the telephone,"
    he told IWPR.

    Eight out of ten ordinary Georgians IWPR spoke to said that they
    prefer not to discuss serious issues on the phone.

    "I never speak about politics on the telephone, as a serious friend
    of mine warned me that all telephones are being tapped," said Maia,
    a 47-year-old dentist.

    "I don't even know what's worse - not to be able to expose one more
    corrupt official or to have a constant feeling that a video eye or
    a listening device is somewhere close to you," said Giga, 34.

    Human rights activists and lawyers say they are also concerned
    about the practice of surveillance of prisons, in violation of the
    confidentiality of meetings between lawyers and prisoners. Subari
    has appealed to the prison department to take down video cameras from
    jail meeting rooms on the grounds that this violates Georgian law. So
    far, he has met with a refusal on the grounds that the practice is
    permissible under UN basic principles on the treatment of prisoners.

    Georgia's Young Lawyers' Association has also appealed to the country's
    constitutional court to protest that the kind of surveillance
    which is currently practiced by the law enforcement agencies is
    unconstitutional.

    The court accepted the application and has said it will answer within
    six months.

    Inga Alavidze works for the crime section of the 24 Hours newspaper
    in Tbilisi
Working...
X