A Journalist in Exile: The Price of Telling the Truth

By Luka Tsereteli

October 21, 2025

One week ago, I was forced to leave Georgia — the country I have loved, defended, and worked for my entire life — and go into exile in Europe.

I’ve spent my whole career in journalism: as an executive producer, reporter, TV host, and founder of a youth-driven media start-up, JSN Media, which helped thousands of Gen Z and millennial Georgians understand what was really happening in their country. I’ve covered corruption, politics, protests, and the stories that many in power wanted to stay hidden.

For that, I was beaten by police, special forces, and enforcement officers while reporting. I was publicly assaulted for being an openly gay journalist. And yet, I never stopped. Because journalism, to me, is not a profession — it’s a calling.

When Your Country Turns Its Back on You

It’s a strange and painful thing when your own government treats you as an enemy, even though everything you do is out of love for your homeland. I have always believed that journalism is a way to fight bullying — whether political, economic, or social. Since childhood, I stood up against bullies, and as an adult, I continued that fight with a camera and a microphone.

Last year, I worked with iFact.ge, one of Georgia’s leading investigative media outlets that exposes corruption and abuse of power. Our journalists were nominated for the national journalism award Shuki — which means “light.” Yet, even at that ceremony, colleagues shared stories of how unsafe Georgian journalists felt compared to their European counterparts.

Today, that fear has become reality.

Independent journalists are being detained, silenced, and imprisoned.

A Nation Silencing Its Truth-Tellers

Mzia Amaglobeli, the founder of Batumelebi/Netgazeti, is now serving two years in prison. Just yesterday, my former colleague Vakho Sanaia, anchor of TV Formula, was arrested alongside other reporters. My sources inside the Ministry of Internal Affairs told me I was next — my name was on the list of journalists they planned to detain because of my reporting and participation in peaceful protests.

I had no choice but to flee.

Leaving wasn’t a decision — it was survival.

Being a journalist and openly gay TV host in Georgia has never been easy, but I never imagined I would be forced into exile for simply doing my job. My profession — the one I love most — was murdered by the very government I once believed in.

Haunted by the Past, Fighting for the Future

I grew up hearing stories about Soviet repression — how people were executed or sent to Siberia just for speaking freely. I never imagined I would see that fear return in modern-day Georgia. Yet, here we are.

I used to live on Anna Politkovskaya Street in Tbilisi — named after the Russian journalist murdered for exposing Putin’s crimes. Her spirit always inspired me. But so did the memory of Giorgi Sanaia, a beloved Georgian journalist murdered in 2001, and Lekso Lashkarava, a cameraman from TV Pirveli who died after being beaten by far-right extremists.

Their deaths remind us that journalism is not a safe profession in our region — but it is a necessary one.

Journalism Will Never Die

Even in exile, I will continue to do what I’ve always done: tell the truth. I may be far from home, but my heart and mission remain with Georgia — and with every journalist fighting oppression worldwide.

To those who try to silence us: you can imprison us, beat us, exile us — but you can never kill journalism. Every dictatorship ends, and every truth eventually finds its voice.

This is Luka Tsereteli,

a journalist in exile,

signing off on October 21, 2025.

Justice for all silenced journalists — and light for those still fighting.