I don’t know if I can call myself a journalist. I don’t even know who in my country can be called like this. I always thought that journalist is a person who says what he sees and how he sees, and not what he is told to say. But last experience showed me that, at least here, you can be just a tongue of someone and be successive journalist. To be a journalist in my country right now it means to be extremely brave, ready for fight and ready to be alone. Someone can think that I’m exaggerating, but that someone should first carefully learn the situation in my country, in Georgia.

All my life, 25 years and 4 months, I was trying not to engage myself in politics, I was not interested and to be honest didn’t care what was happening in the government or parliament, Inner or foreign relations. I had my favorite things and I was doing them. But one day, 7th of November 2007, I saw on TV streets of Tbilisi, capital of Georgia. People were running from one side to another, scared, wet, beaten and poisoned just because government didn’t like peaceful demonstration and decided to show that violence can be done even in the name of democracy. That day and that moment I understood that can not stay in the corner and when my friends are there I can not sit in warm studio and with the smile on my face tell to the radio listeners that everything is great, nothing is happening and offer them light classical music. I left everything and went to join the left peaces of demonstration. Those peaces were gathered together in the end of the day and broken once again by forces, which after crushed and closed one of the richest and most popular television.

I thought that that day was the end of this regime, that the whole country will be indignant, feel abused and if not fight at least protest what happened, I thought that journalists of other televisions will support there colleagues and blame that they were treated as most dangerous terrorists. On the paper they did but not in life.

I was speaking with people and discovering that what had happened it wasn’t considered as a fact of violence but almost as a kindness, as taking care of the people from government. They believed that that we were beaten it was better for us.

That moment I understood that we are drowning in a big swamp of conformism. The people who always were rebellious, against soviet regime and before against many and many conquerors, surrendered just like this and didn’t see freedom of speaking disappearing somewhere. After that many things happened. There were huge demonstrations with undress of thousand people, activities and meetings but all the televisions were quiet as if nothing was happening, when there were 200 000 people (5% of population) in the streets the main channels, which have pretension to be the most objective and truth, were showing something completely different, programs about animals or something similar. And the same evening when there was a concert with 600 people attending they had live reporting just because it was organized by the government.

That’s why I don’t know anymore who is a journalist and who just a frightened one with diploma of journalist.

I don’t have that diploma. That is not my job but the opportunity to express my feelings. I started to work at the radio as a RJ when I was only 16 and I definitely can not call this period time of professionalism, it was more having fun. Than after long time I came back to that job but as a post/producer in a classical music radio station. Now I’m in the third radio in my life and doing something completely different than I have ever done in this business. In the morning I have a short program called “News in Narration” or “Narrated News” it’s hard to find exact translation from Georgian, but I can explain what I’m doing. I tell the breaking news but in a very immediate way, as if I, Nika Chalatashvili, just a guy, the rugby player, was telling what is happening to my friend and to the close person. News semi joking, semi serious. Maybe it’s with the humor, but I always try to touch very serious themes, which I think are problematic in my country. I always try in these jokes to show how blind we can be not to see things that are so clear. I’m tiring to show that it had no sense to run away from Soviet Union if we were going to live without any freedom of choice and self respect. That Government is not a god, as it was considered in communism time, but these are just workers that will come and go and we will stay in that mess they will leave. That people shouldn’t be afraid of the government, but government must be afraid of people. I’m tiring to prove that there is no perfect government growing on the tree, it will do as much as you ask from him and if you are passive and conformist, it will ask from you and make you do what he wants.
I understand that after being in a position of a slave for about 200 years (first King’s Russia and than 70 years Soviet Union) it’s very hard to be free, independent and especially responsible. But it doesn’t mean that we have to wait until it comes, we have to fight for this. And I’m fighting as I can.

My program exists not very long, about 3 months, but I already have my listeners and feel that I’m on the right way. As a proof of this I have the fact that, even if it exists only 3 months and it’s only 15 minutes in the morning it disturbs someone above, much higher than my boss. And I already had a warning that I should calm down and choose a words when I speak about government. For me it means that I’m saying truth which is not always beautiful. And for me that’s what journalist should do.

My friend sent me the advertisement about workshop for journalists in Potsdam. My first thought was: But I’m not a journalist! But than I thought: What if I am? What if I can also join that workshop and say something interesting, something new to that people. Not everywhere have journalists this advantage to be pressed from the government and observe such situation that I am observing in Georgia.
I would like to participate in that workshop, because I feel that I really have things to share, which might be useful for somebody.

So I wrote this and sending to you with the hope that you will give me the opportunity to speak and to listen.

And if you ask me what does it mean to be a journalist in my country? I will respond – for the moment it means to be just an honest person, there are no higher requirements yet.