Maria Ressa Cites Mzia Amaghlobeli Case as Example of Resisting Dictators in New Book

Nobel laureate Filipino journalist Maria Ressa's new book features the story of Mzia Amaghlobeli, founder of Batumelebi and Netgazeti. The book "Resist: A Citizen's Guide to Confronting Dictators" was published in October of this year.

Ressa writes that journalists are always the first to become targets of attacks, and cites Amaghlobeli's case as one example. She quotes TrialWatch of the Clooney Foundation, according to which "the trial was a farce".

"Mzia could not speak freely in the courtroom. The system was designed to silence her. She was locked in a glass booth, which limited her ability to speak with her own lawyers and take part in her own defense. So she raised a book. My book "How to Stand Up to a Dictator". The Georgian translation. This photograph — Mzia in the glass booth, holding the book cover-first toward the camera — became a symbol overnight. Outside the courtroom, Georgian protesters walked the streets of Tbilisi with copies of this book. Inside, a woman who had devoted twenty-five years to creating two of her country's most important independent media outlets was using the only tool left to her to defend herself: other people's words, because the state had taken away her own words", writes Maria Ressa.

According to her, after seeing this photo she followed the events in Georgia closely and was amazed by the persistence of the protest.

Ressa writes about Amaghlobeli: "Mzia Amaghlobeli has a long history of independence. She is one of the founders of Batumelebi and Netgazeti, online publications that withstood four political regimes in Georgia and for almost a quarter of a century exposed corruption and the abuse of power". According to her, Amaghlobeli was born in the village of Chvana in Shuakhevi district, and in her youth one of three brothers died, and later she took on the financial support of her nephews and their children. At the age of twenty-three she co-founded "Batumelebi" together with two friends, to resist power during the period of Soviet-style propaganda. In 2003 the local authorities closed "Batumelebi", which forced them to move the company to Tbilisi.

Ressa says that, like the co-founders of her own outlet, Rappler, Amaghlobeli and the co-founders of Batumelebi had also experienced intimidation and arrests.

The book describes that when co-founder Eter Turadze saw how Amaghlobeli slapped the police chief, she said she was shocked, because this behavior was completely unusual for her: "She is a very self-controlled person". Amaghlobeli began a hunger strike in prison, which lasted 38 days. Her eyesight sharply deteriorated: today she sees only 10% with one eye, and with the other she perceives only light.

On August 6, 2025, the court sentenced her to two years in prison. In December, the European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought. In March 2026, the Supreme Court refused to consider her appeal. According to the book, she is the first woman journalist to be imprisoned in Georgia since the country gained independence in 1991. From prison she wrote: "Freedom is much more precious than life, and it is at stake. Fight while it is not too late".