Georgia Forbes editor quits over 'censorship'

Editor-in-chief Revaz Sakevarishvili told Georgian media he had quit over "censorship" on the coverage of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who has vowed to oust President Mikheil Saakashvili's party at parliamentary polls this year.

"I made the decision to resign on the grounds that there is serious pressure aimed at suppressing editorial independence and establishing censorship," Sakevarishvili was quoted as saying by InterPressNews agency.

Calls to Sakevarishvili went unanswered when AFP tried to reach him. The US edition of the business magazine this month rated Ivanishvili as the richest man in Georgia with a fortune estimated at US$6.4bn (€4.8bn) in its closely-watched annual Forbes List.

A cause for resistance

However, Sakevarishvili said that the head of the Georgian company publishing the local franchise of the magazine, Media Partners, was unhappy about further coverage of the opposition tycoon.

"As an editor-in-chief, I thought Forbes Georgia should have focused on Ivanishvili, as he was the only Georgian billionaire in the Forbes rating. This became a cause for a categorical resistance with the founder," InterPressNews quoted him as saying.

Ivanishvili was stripped of his Georgian passport last year for violating citizenship laws just days after announcing that he would challenge Saakashvili.

The tycoon and his companies have since been fined around US$3.65m (€2.7m) for contravening a new law on political donations.

Saakashvili's allies have accused the businessman, who made his fortune in Russia, of being a stooge for Georgia's enemies in Moscow, which fought a brief war with Tbilisi in 2008.

Forbes Georgia was launched in December last year with a projected distribution of 3000 copies in the small ex-Soviet republic of 4.4 million.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge