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Thursday,
August 16,
2007, #156 (1423)
By Nino Mumladze Dissident and now
homeless, the Kavkasia television channel has turned down the president's
offer to cover six months of their rent from his reserve fund. "We cannot afford your Excellency's charity…when tens of my colleagues, put out from their jobs without any warning are in no better condition, and maybe even more in need of aid. As a common citizen of this country I demand not mercy, but justice," reads station president Davit Akubardia's written response to President Mikheil Saakashvili's official letter, handed to the State Chancellery on August 15. Officials from the Ministry of Economic Development claimed the evicted businesses had been given notice last year when the building on Kostava 14 was put up for privatization with a listing price of USD 20 million. After the businesses' leases expired, and were not offered to be renewed, police told some 90 tenants to leave the central Tbilisi building. Without an office, Kavkasia went off-air. Hunting for a new home, the station's administration announced that two nearly-completed lease deals fell through, "strangely at the last minute." Much of their equipment, station management says, is now scattered around the city in employees' homes. Some, particularly opposition politicians, accused the state of cracking down on free media. Kavkasia, airing during the Rose Revolution, did not favor Saakashvili in its coverage of the upheaval that brought his administration to power. Since then, Kavkasia has been consistently denied invitations to government press conferences, despite their formal accreditation. The president's offer to help the company find space to broadcast from, first announced by Minister of Economic Development Giorgi Arveladze on August 14, was clarified as an unusual measure taken to demonstrate the government's commitment to a free press. "This is a very extraordinary decision [from the government]…Our main principles are grounded in an independent press and media, and the promotion of their independence. And Georgia's legislation, including that adopted by us during the recent three years, stands on this very basis and always will," Arveladze said. "We won't give anyone the opportunity for blackmail and speculation," he added. The privately-held Kavkasia insists that it would be a violation of professional ethics to take state funding, saying that the offer is "tempting their dignity." "If City Hall's Supervisory Service returns our belongings which it took away without a trace, if the Ministry of Economic Development apologizes to us, if everything shifts into a civilized mode and everyone is reimbursed for their damages, then we will accept compensation, but not from the president's reserve fund," Nino Jangirashvili, co-owner and editor-in-chief of Kavkasia commented yesterday. Lasha Chkhartishvili from the NGO Equality Institute approves of Kavkasia's arguments, saying the company's decision to reject the state's offer was a "bold and worthy precedent." Speaking with the Messenger, he said that the other evicted media outlets should also be offered adequate reimbursement as well. Some of those businesses
are hopeful. Badri Nachkebia, director of the Russian-owned television
and radio company Mir Georgia said he doesn't view the state's offer
of aid to Kavkasia as exclusive. While Nachkebia said no offer had yet come in, the Mir Georgia director said he'd have no compunctions about accepting state money. "Well, [our
TV station] is in a slightly different situation. We're an international
company, not local. We're not associated with anything political,"
he told the Messenger. |
Evicted
Kavkasia TV turns down offer of state aid
