President Saakashvili awarded journalist Malkhaz Basilaia and Davit Tsotsoria, who spent ten days in Abkhaz custody, with medals of honor on March 8.

He said that he was awarding the two men for their bravery while in Abkhaz custody. Saakashvili said that the Abkhaz side wanted the two men to sign papers apologizing for illegally crossing the Abkhaz border. “A Georgian man should not apologize to armed groups for crossing a Georgian river [the Enguri, which divides Abkhazia from the rest of Georgia] and you have demonstrated it very well,” Saakashvili told Basilaia and Tsotsoria.

Abkhaz officials said before the release of the two Georgians that Saakashvili would use the release for his “PR stunts” by awarding them with medals.

Ema Gogokhia, a Rustavi 2 TV reporter, was also awarded the same medal at the ceremony in the president’s office. Saakashvili said that he was awarding Gogokhia for “heroism” which she had shown during the Ganmukhuri incident. “I have seen it with my own eyes how Ema Gogokhia showed civil, and maybe even combat, heroism as well… when she risked her own life in order to seize footage which internationally proved that we were right [during the Ganmukhuri incident],” Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili said that the authorities had “difficult relations” with journalists, as “they often criticize us.” “But this award is an award of the Georgian state and not an award personally from me,” he said.