On October 14 in Brussels, five Members of the European Parliament co-hosted a discussion titled “Freedom Behind Bars: Standing with Mzia Amaglobeli and Georgia’s Pro-Democracy Movement.” Following the opening remarks by the MEPs, the floor was given to Amaglobeli’s colleagues and her international lawyers. The event also featured addresses from Georgia’s fifth president, Salome Zourabichvili, and Nobel Prize laureate Maria Ressa, who spoke to the members of the EU Parliament and attendees.
Irma Dimitradze, a journalist from Batumelebi, was one of the panelists of the discussion. Here is a transcript of her speech:
“I’ll try to be brief. Well, I don’t feel comfortable being here because it’s not the position I should be in as a journalist. But, I am here because I promised Mzia that I would go anywhere and everywhere to take her voice and to make her fight continue if she would stop her hunger strike, because it was terrifying. The only other time in my life that I felt as terrified as I did during Mzia’s hunger strike was in 2008 when I was 13 and Russian tanks were invading Georgia.
I often get asked how things are going: “Is there hope?”, “The protests continue day after day, but where are you headed?” – What I want to tell you is that, actually, it’s not difficult to fight when you see hope or a glimmer of light ahead; the bravery is to fight when you have no logical explanation, and I think the history of Georgia just shows it: Georgians kept fighting under the Russian Empire and under many others before; even during the Soviet occupation, when it didn’t really look like we would get out of it and retain our country and freedoms. And yet, here we are – this tiny country.
And now also, maybe sometimes you think that there are no logical hopes… but no – this is the bravery.
Some people say and I also used to say that those people who are born in free Georgia or free Ukraine – or after the collapse of the Soviet Union, understand freedom better and are more willing to fight for it with courage and bravery. However, what happened to Mzia and what I see around me has made me realize that these are those who really know what it means to live without freedom who are willing to give up everything and fight whenever there is even not a hope. And I think we, Georgians have a real chance because we have this determination. We just need help.
I’ve said it many times, and sometimes it feels pathetic, but it’s the truth. We are on the front line, on the defense line. And we need you not to let your hand go, as Mzia said in her message. And I want you to believe in us, believe in our bravery because this woman is literally giving everything. She’s fighting to the end, and the end can be tragic or victorious. Right now, in this building, it is very much in your hands also to help, to help that this fight ends victoriously, not tragically. For some cases, like that of another client of Caoilfhionn Gallagher (Daphne Caruana Galizia), it was too late… We cannot afford it because if it’s too late for Mzia today, then it will be too late for others tomorrow.
Here are journalists and press freedom defenders as well and I want to thank them for their fight and for their belief. And I want to once again ask everyone: Understand, we know – Freedom is more valuable than life itself and it’s worth fighting, just help us in it.
One day I will come here with Mzia, and that day should come very soon.”
