OC Media
 | |
| Type | Online newspaper |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Mariam Nikuradze, Dominik K Cagara, and Caroline Sutcliffe |
| Editor-in-chief | Robin Fabbro[1] |
| Founded | January 2017 |
| Political alignment | Center-left |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Tbilisi |
| Website | OC-Media.org |
OC Media (Open Caucasus Media) is an independent English-language online news platform covering the North and South Caucasus regions.
Overview
[edit]OC Media is a Tbilisi-based website founded in 2017 by journalists Mariam Nikuradze and Dominik K. Cagara and brings together journalists from throughout the Caucasus.[2][3][4]
The site covers the South Caucasus nations of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, Russia's North Caucasus republics, and the disputed territories of Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia.[5][6]
OC Media receives funding from different organizations and institutions as well as their readers. It has received funding from organizations such as UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Open Society Foundations, the National Endowment for Democracy, the European Endowment for Democracy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.[3]
In March 2020, Georgian rights group the Human Rights Education and monitoring centre (EMC) appealed to the government after an undercover investigation by OC Media revealed poor working conditions in several textile factories in the country.[7][8] They called on the Department of Labour Inspection to immediately inspect garment factories and for Parliament to pass legislative changes to prevent future violations of workers’ rights.
In October 2020, the site was temporarily taken offline by a cyberattack. The outlet's management attributed the attack to their coverage of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.[9][10][11]
OC Media was awarded the 2023 Free Media Award.[12]
In September 2023, OC Media revealed that the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, had contacted the site's institutional donors in an attempt to have their funding cut, after they refused to publish an op-ed he had authored.[13][14] The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics condemned the speaker's actions.[15]
References
[edit]- ^ "Our Team". OC Media. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
- ^ "A progressive, pro-peace voice in the Caucasus". European Endowment for Democracy. 2020-11-18. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ^ a b "Who we are". OC Media. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
- ^ "16th South Caucasus Media Conference". OSCE. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
- ^ Narimanishvili, Nino (2020-06-21). "OC Media პანდემიის პირისპირ, დაფინანსების ახალი გზების ძიებაში - ინტერვიუ მარიამ ნიკურაძესთან" [OC Media in the face of the pandemic, in search of new means of financing — Interview with Mariam Nikuradze]. Media Checker (in Georgian). Retrieved 2020-06-22.
- ^ "How OC Media is training the next generation of freelance journalists in the Caucasus region". Engaged Journalism. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
- ^ "Inside Georgia's textile industry". OC Media. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ^ "EMC სამკერვალოებში დასაქმებული ქალების შრომით ექსპლუატაციას ეხმიანება" [EMC responds to the labour exploitation of women employed in sewing]. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Centre (EMC) (in Georgian). Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ^ "Хакеры атаковали OC Media методом "грубой силы"" [Hackers attack OC Media with brute force attack]. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (in Russian). 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
- ^ "OC Media-ზე კიბერთავდასხმა მოხდა" [Cyber attack on OC Media]. On.ge (in Georgian). 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
- ^ "OC-Media". Justice for Journalists. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
- ^ "Fritt Ord's and ZEIT-Stiftung's Free Media Awards for 2023: Free Media Awards to journalists and media outlets from Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus and Russia". Fritt Ord. 2023-06-22. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
- ^ "Speaker of Georgian parliament pressured OC Media's donors after failure to place op-ed". OC Media. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
- ^ "Speaker Complains to Donor After Outlet Refuses Op-ed". Civil Georgia. 2023-09-13. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
- ^ "ქარტია მოუწოდებს ხელისუფლებას, შეწყვიტოს თავისუფალი და მიუკერძოებელი მედიის დევნა" [The Charter calls on the authorities to stop persecuting free and impartial media]. The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics (in Georgian). 2023-09-12. Retrieved 2024-09-04.