There are just seconds to go until the start of the 6 pm show on Mtavari TV, and a small team has crowded into the control room on a side street in the capital, Tbilisi. After a few final instructions, host Mikheil Sesiashvili is on air. The big news this evening is an accident at the university, though no was one was hurt.

Mtavari TV decides for itself what and how it reports. The channel’s staff of roughly 300 has fought hard to make it that way. They set up shop in 2019 in a rebellion against their former employer, whose editorial line was, in their view, too friendly to the government.

The work isn’t easy, as Sesiashvili explained. “I’m hosting a show on a broadcaster whose managing director spent one year and three months in prison for political reasons,” he said.

He hadn’t committed any crimes, but he was critical of the government, added Sesiashvili. “And everyone here in this building is thinking: maybe I’m next.”

In May 2022, Mtavari TV managing director Nika Gvaramia was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. His sentence related to the alleged private use of his company car, which judges argued had financially harmed the broadcaster. But many suspected a political motivation.

The European Union has called on Georgia to release Gvaramia, most recently in its regular review of whether EU accession candidates, including Georgia, fulfill the conditions to start negotiations. At the end of June, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili pardoned Gvaramia.

Nonetheless, Sesiashvili can’t shake the daily thought that journalists can randomly end up in jail. “It’s difficult, but we colleagues try to keep each others spirits up and to concentrate on why we are doing this job. I call us freedom fighters, because we are fighting for a more democratic, freer Georgia,” he said.

More freedom, more democracy. These are the values that bind Georgia with the EU. When surveyed, more than 80% of Georgians frequently express support for joining the bloc. Graffiti with EU flags and slogans like “We are Europe” adorn walls all over Tbilisi.

In early November, when the European Commission recommended that the 27 member states give Georgia EU candidate status, spontaneous celebrations broke out in the capital city.

But there was a catch: Of the 12 priority criteria where EU officials had previously identified room for improvement, Georgia had only fulfilled three.

The government needed to improve its track record on press freedom and media independence, officials in Brussels warned. But the government in Tbilisi appears unmoved. Earlier this year, it passed a law that made it easier to revoke journalists’ parliamentary accreditation. As a result, posing a difficult question twice in a row can see reporters denied access to the legislature.

Mariam Gersamia, a researcher at Transparency International Georgia, has called the bill a “bureaucratic scalpel.” In her job, there aren’t many positive developments to report. “We see campaigns to discredit journalists and we observe the demonisation of the job,” she said.

“Independent journalists get vilified as supporters of certain political parties, politicians refuse to give interviews to outlets that don’t toe their line,” she added. All this leads to more polarization, not only in the media landscape but in society at large.