Georgia is in a grim state. Once vibrant, welcoming, and hopeful, it has become a country where peaceful protesters are beaten and journalists are branded as traitors. Over the past year, the ruling Georgian Dream party has stifled civil society and media with its foreign agent law, extended its reign for another four years through a rigged election, and announced it would “suspend” efforts to join the EU.
In the Georgia of 2025, war is called peace, and slavery is called freedom.
Disinformation is the Georgian government’s weapon of choice, including pushing Russian narratives about the brutal, full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Like its anti-democratic counterparts in Hungary, Belarus, and Azerbaijan, the Georgian government has identified the media as the primary obstacle to consolidating authoritarian rule.
A long campaign of discreditation, financial strangulation, and intimidation of donors has taken its toll. The voices of independent journalists are fading, and with new legislation poised to de facto outlaw independent outlets, the final blow may be near — a kiss of death carried on Russia’s breath.
The sudden termination of U.S. aid funding came as a shock to an already struggling independent media landscape. I co-founded OC Media in 2017 to inform both local and international readers about the Caucasus — from Grozny to Tbilisi, Yerevan to Baku. Providing a progressive voice, where facts matter and showing an alternative to state media narratives, has always been our guiding principle.
But it’s clear these principles are not shared by the Trump administration, whose cuts cost us $250,000 in expected funding for 2025 — 80% of our core operational budget.
Nearly every online media outlet in Georgia was affected, and I expect many, or even most of them, to close in the coming weeks and months. This is a pattern repeating across Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia; reports suggest these cuts could devastate Ukraine’s media landscape as well.
If nothing changes, we risk surrendering the media space to those who can afford it: the oligarchs, authoritarian governments, and, perhaps most concerning of all, Russia. This could leave our region in a disinformation bubble, where Russian-backed narratives, including those that seek to blame Ukraine for being invaded, proliferate. Without independent outlets like OC Media, the overwhelming support Georgian society has for Ukraine may be buried under the weight of pro-government media.
Part of this vulnerability in the media is certainly our own fault. For years in Georgia, we in the media have relied too heavily on donor aid, neglecting other potential sources of revenue.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Last summer, I visited Kyiv for the first time since Russia’s brutal full-scale invasion began, to learn from our colleagues at the Kyiv Independent, who have survived revolutions, wars, and the most insidious propaganda — the kind that turns victims into aggressors.
The Kyiv Independent has pioneered a model many thought impossible in our region: creating a media outlet fully funded by its readers, independent of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tantrums or the whims of institutional donors. Their approach has shown that self-sufficiency is not just an ideal — it is essential for our survival.
We launched our own membership program almost a year ago, as the Georgian government pushed ahead with its Russian-style foreign agent law. But it was only on the brink of collapse that our membership truly gained traction. Today, I am proud to say that 10% of our core budget now comes from reader support — something few believed possible in the Caucasus. This is just the beginning.
If readers choose to support the media they rely on, then perhaps we can fight back against a world where the president of the most powerful country in the world calls the leader of a defending nation a dictator.
I know Georgians deserve better. My government has chosen the path of disinformation and repression, but independent media remains a lifeline — for Georgians, for Ukrainians, and for all those who can still tell the victim from the aggressor.
During my trip to Kyiv last summer, beyond the usual shock of air raid sirens and the echoes of explosions, what struck me most was the resilience of a people under siege — and the crucial role Ukrainian media have had in defying disinformation, both at home and abroad.
Now, across Eastern Europe, independent media is in deep crisis. Yet despite our borders, our histories, and our governments, our struggle is the same. The Kyiv Independent is leading the way with its reader-funded model, and OC Media is proud to follow. We have been overwhelmed by the support we have already received in donations and membership sign-ups to help us survive.
That’s why I’m asking you to join the Kyiv Independent, OC Media, and other media outlets across the region in this fight — before we lose our ability to resist the authoritarian disinformation tide, as so many already have.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.
Eerik Kross
