Last month on our blog, we investigated claims that residents of the new IDP cottage settlements had been unfairly and without warning required to pay high bills for gas and electricity. The issue still hasn’t been properly resolved, but on March 26

Over the weekend TI Georgia had the opportunity to discuss issues surrounding online social media tools with the doers and shakers of the South Caucasus, including bloggers, developers and activists from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. In just two d

Georgian television stations are currently owing about GEL 36 million (USD 20.6 million) in taxes and fines to the Ministry of Finance. The government recently submitted a draft amendment of the tax code to Parliament which is likely to be adopted so

Prior to the upcoming local elections, the misuse of administrative resources for election campaigning will become quite an important issue. With only a couple of months remaining until election day, the government is beginning to excessively pour mo

Mark Twain once famously said, “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics.” It’s a truth known to us all, with data manipulation and survey figures presented out of context one day purporting to show that a glass of wine is good f

The restaurant business, more than any other, has its ups and downs. One day can see the place packed with paying punters and another brings empty tables and idle staff that still need paying. Over the financial year, though, one would hope that one

The U.S. State Department has released its latest 2009 Human Rights Report on Georgia in which Transparency International Georgia is mentioned several times. The report largely refers to Transparency International Georgia's report on media ownership

Since the New Year, TI Georgia has heard a number of reports from civil society and media organizations claiming that IDPs in the new cottage settlements were unfairly required to pay large electricity and gas bills in January, and that many had lost

Several Georgian media outlets have turned the fact that a Spanish journalist had his bag stolen in a Sokhumi coffee shop into an anti-Russian/anti-Abkhaz propaganda exercise. Imedi TV, the Georgian Public Broadcaster and other TV channels reported t

In late January, the Georgian Government hired the American lobbying firm Gephardt Group Government Affairs, founded by the former Democratic House of Representatives Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, to promote Georgia's interests. The one-year con