South Ossetia is expecting the election to the main legislative body of the Republic to take place for the fifth time. The fact that the election to the Parliament will be held with the obtained status of a recognized state attaches special meaning to the upcoming plebiscite. Significant interest towards our election persists among the international community. According to information of the Ministry of Press and Media, 100 journalists from Russia, far and near aboard are expected to arrive in South Ossetia.
As it is known, journalists of two Georgian TV-channels "Rustavi-2" and "Imedi" are arriving through Russia to South Ossetia to cover the election. The Association of Journalists of South Ossetia is expressing its categorical protest against the presence of Georgian journalists on the territory of the Republic of South Ossetia and is demanding from relevant structures for official prohibition for RSO state border crossing by Georgian media representatives.
Throughout the last nineteen years, Georgian media, independently of their status, have been carrying out an informational war against South Ossetia, provoking and aggravating the situation, deliberately fueling inter-ethnic tension, promoting and implanting fascist ideology, and this had eventually led to three bloodsheds in 1989-2008 taking thousands of lives of our Republic's citizens.
The last aggression took place last August. Since then, the informational war by the Georgian state has activated with the use of new technologies, new methods of misinformation and defamation of RSO. Moreover, the Georgian side involves some Russian media sources in anti-Ossetian information campaign, and by doing so, provokes internal political tensions in South Ossetian society.
It is worth noting that after the August 2008 events, appearance of Georgian journalists in South Ossetia will become an additional source of irritation which might trigger corresponding reaction among the population.
Especially because "Rustavi-2" journalists, according to tens of witnesses, were accompanying Georgian armed forces and covering the genocide of the Ossetian people, murders and barbarous acts presenting all these as "operation on restoring constitutional order". It one take into account the fact that the presence of Georgian journalists in South Ossetia will result in another portion of lies and misinformation, the efforts aimed at organizing their proper working conditions and ensuring their security become senseless. Based on the above, the Association of Journalist of South Ossetia stands against permission for Georgian mass media to enter the territory of the sovereigns state of the Republic of South Ossetia.
Association of Journalists of South Ossetia
