The ruling party's non-acceptance of dissenting opinion and forms of response to criticism have reached an alarming limit

Non-governmental organizations express our support to Thea Godoladze, the head of the National Seismic Monitoring Center of the Institute of Earth Sciences, and condemn the slander campaign directed against her.

Tea Godoladze became the target of a totally worthless campaign due to her professional activities, numerous controversial projects, and her repeatedly expressed critical opinions about the wrong actions or inactions of public agencies.

On the morning of August 22, TV company Rustavi 2 disseminated information related to Tea Godoladze's personal life in a distorted and one-sided manner. On the same day and on the air of the same broadcaster, the deputy of "Georgian Dream" used the mentioned groundless accusations to criticize the professional activity and dignity of Tea Godoladze. People affiliated with "Georgian Dream" continued the campaign against Tea Godoladze outside the television space on social networks. In order to prove the absurdity of the accusation against her, Tea Godoladze was forced to speak publicly about extremely personal issues.

It should be noted that this is not the first attempt by members of the ruling party to verbally attack Tea Godoladze and tarnish her reputation. Among them, after the Shovi tragedy, Thea Godoladze was one of the experts who was attacked by the chairman of the parliament for questioning the conclusion on the Shovi disaster. Tea Godoladze's criticism and public statements about the government's neglect of environmental, ecological and development regulation issues have put a number of important issues on the agenda of public discussions, which deserve public attention, but which the ruling party does not want to focus on.

It is obvious that "Georgian Dream" is trying to avoid its own responsibility for the criticism expressed and instead of answering the legitimate questions, it is trying to discredit the authors of the questions, to put pressure on them and to silence them.

We believe that Georgian Dream's response to criticism of the government and the ruling party's activities and campaigns to discredit undesirable people are taking dangerous forms. This harms not only the people targeted by the ruling party, but the country as a whole; It contradicts the most basic ethical norms and undermines the perspective of democratic development of the country.

Signatory organizations:

A green alternative
Georgian Court Watch
"Open Society Foundation"
Human Rights Center (HRC)
Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia
International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED)
Cover
Women's Initiatives Support Group (WISG)
Rights Georgia
Center for Social Justice
Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture - GCRT
Georgian Reforms Association (GRASS)
Civil movement for freedom
Society for Nature Conservation - Sabuko