OC Media

OC Media (Open Caucasus Media) is an independent English-language news outlet founded in 2017 by journalists Mariam Nikuradze and Dominik K. Cagara. Based in Tbilisi, Georgia, it covers the South Caucasus nations — Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan — as well as Russia's North Caucasus republics and the disputed territories of Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. Its stated mission is honest, cross-border reporting that "empowers progressive voices and supports democratic change." OC Media employs journalists from across the region and trains local newsrooms.

The outlet is funded by a mix of institutional donors including the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the 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, as well as reader contributions. Its donor mix reflects the geopolitical sensitivity of Caucasus reporting: institutional funders from NATO-aligned countries are its primary backers, a fact that Georgian government-aligned critics have used to frame it as a Western proxy. The outlet publishes in English with some Georgian and Russian content.

OC Media is the primary English-language source for civil society and government developments in Georgia. Its reporting on the Georgian government's labour migration law amendments — including the MIA inspection powers that took effect on 1 March 2026 — provided the key documentation used by the Lowdown nomads-and-communities briefing to assess the chilling effect on foreign residents in Tbilisi. For international readers monitoring Georgia's democratic backsliding under the Georgian Dream government, OC Media's output is effectively indispensable.