Georgian TV channel suspends broadcasts…owner in coup plot allegations

Imedi TV suspended broadcasting ‘temporarily’ (Wednesday, December 26) according to a spokesperson, reported by website Civil Georgia. The station has been a political football in the contest between the government of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and billionaire opposition leader Badri Patarkatsishvili. In early November the channel was forcibly closed by authorities and direct management assumed by News Corporation (News Corp), its minority shareholder.

The station spokesperson called the temporary suspension “distancing from dirty political games.”

Imedi TV returned to the airwaves three weeks later under ‘new management’ but Georgian authorities have reportedly insisted on a complete ownership change…sort of like regime change. This political melodrama has been playing on the small screen with charges and counter-charges of plots, bribes and all those post-Soviet things. Patarkatsishvili sent (December 25) a video message, intended for Imedi TV staff, telling them not to ‘be afraid of anything.’ He also thanked News Corp, saying “…this company will do its best to protect freedom of speech.”

But in the video message he also admitted offering an Interior Ministry official ‘a huge amount of money.” As it would happen in this (post) modern age, rival privately owned TV Rustavi 2 plucked the video from the satellite (Patarkatsishvili speaking from his London home) and put it on the air claiming it as evidence he’s plotting a coup. Patarkatsishvili has also admitted funding the ‘rose revolution’ that brought Mr. Saakashvili to power.

Earlier in the day (Wednesday December 26) several Imedi TV journalists quit, saying continued work at the station would be, for them, ‘unacceptable’ because ‘our journalistic freedom can now be misused.’ With no hint of irony, the journalists also asked that “you not to give any political interpretation to our decision.” - Michael Hedges December 26, 2007

Keywords:media in Georgia,News Corp