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Georgian Public Defender Report: Freedom of Media in Georgia

November 17, 2008

Sozar Subari, Public Defender has come out with his final report of the first part of 2008 that addressed media freedoms in Georgia and it was shared with representatives of media and opposition political parties.

Public Defender spoke about those violations and oppression imposed by the government and national regulation commission of communications over the Georgian media sources.

Sozar Subari stated that international society now has a deteriorated impression about what is Georgian democracy and this attitude is expressed in their final reports as well. One year ago, Georgia occupied 66th place in the rating of the freedom of media and this year it moved to 120th place. “Journalists and TV companies have been seriously oppressed. It is easily demonstrated by frequent changes of the owners of the TV companies. The news is provided according to the directions based on the priorities of governmental officials and not by responsible staff of various TV Companies. Owners of the media sources are called at the national regulation commission and they forced to assign their shares to others. In parallel, the commission illegally issues licenses and frequencies.

TV Company and other applicant companies were not granted with the broadcast frequencies. The reason for the refusal was a survey of the public opinion. Now the commission intends to find out what kind of information is more acceptable to Georgian society. In such a situation, the commission issued the license on the TV Company “Alania” which had worked without license before and the national commission never even notice the violation; this was for certain reasons. The commission did not seize license from the owner of the “Channel 9” who has the family name of Gegeshidze and is said to be in close relations with governmental authorities. TV Company “Imedi” was initially raided last year and then its broadcasting illegally based on a single warning and a court order.  The same happened about many other broadcasting companies that are not acceptable for the National Regulation Commission and the authorities. During the election campaigns the time was divided very disproportionally. United Opposition had 2, 49 minutes while Saakashvili had 35, 30 minutes. Central Election Commission had to react on that because it is a violation of the law.

During the parliamentary elections there was a person on the list of the National Movement who personally threatened Radio “Hereti” to seize the license. And in fact, two days later Radio “Hereti” was fined for no apparent reasons. The radio company was threatened under the name of Davit Kirkitadze, Kvemo Kartli regional governor. One more violation is that the owner of 40 % of the TV Companies “Rustavi 2” and “Mze” is a company “Mediagroup”. However, nobody actually knows who the real owner of this company. There is some suspicion that President Mikheil Saakashvili owns 40 % of these companies,” stated Sozar Subari.

The Public Defender spoke about the violations that occurred during the attack on the TV Company “Imedi”. He also mentioned the fact how late owner of the TV Company, Patarkatsishvili was seized his property through the violations and illegal activities under the cover of the legal system. According to American expert, the signature of Patarkatsishvili is false. Subari also mentioned that information policy of the TV-Radio Company “Imedi” has been changed recently.

After the Public Defender finished his statement, two journalists from Radio Company “Imedi”, Manana Tokmajishvili and Nino Tskhvarashvili spoke about their oppression from the new board of the Radio Company. According to the journalists, the new board closed down their political talk-show because they did now represent a high degree of professionalism.

Journalist Tskhvariashvili called upon journalists to join the fight in seeking justice in their case. She said that current situation of media sources in Georgia has resulted from journalists not being able to close ranks and join together, and if they would stand side-by-side they would be able bring about changes in the current situation.

After Subari finished his speech, Salome Zurabishvili, leader of the “Sakartvelos Gza” underlined that Public Broadcasting was 20 minutes later to record the presentation of the Public Defender. The mandate of the PB states that similar speeches should be fully recorded and released live. Zurabishvili assessed the latest incident as yet another violation of the law.

At the end of his speech, the Ombudsman categorically called upon the government to impartially investigate attacks made against several journalists and bring all perpetrators to court. Subari added that his office will introduce the report to the Georgian parliament.

Source: Medianews

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