Journalists of TV Company Maestro request reaction from Public Defender to the facts of hindrance of their professional activity.
The journalists addressed the Office of Public Defender with a special statement. Interpressnews presents the statement:
“As you know we, the employees of TV Company Maestro have not had a chance to carry out our professional activity for several days now since the unidentified individuals accompanying Erosi Kitsmarishvili are still staying in the building of the TV Company. The employees of the TV Company numerous times addressed the conflicting sides for the negotiation and unidentified individuals to leave the territory which obviously hinder our journalistic activity. As you know, the article 154 of the Criminal Code of Georgia envisages raising responsibility for illegal hindrance of journalistic activity. The scenes spread by the media on November 30th of 2011 show well that the patrol police without giving any explanation did not allow the journalists of the TV Company Maestro to enter the building which represents hindrance of our professional activity. Besides, journalists numerous times observed that the people accompanying Kitsmarishvili did not allow the employees to freely move in the yard which also represents grave intervention in journalistic activity.
We are aware of your position that the Public Defender cannot intervene in the internal matters of the TV Company but the position towards the facts of hindrance of journalistic performance which we already listed in this statement and which were numerous times shown to the public is not understandable.
Our request is to apply article 154 of the Criminal Code of Georgia which concerns the illegal hindrance of journalistic performance and article 13 of the Organic Law on Public Defender which belongs to you direct obligation and which obliges you to react to the fact of the hindrance of the journalistic activity from the police police. We are looking forward to your reply to defend our constitutional right,” – reads the statement of Maestro journalists.
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