Rustavi 2 TV channel suspends broadcasting
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Rustavi 2, a Tbilisi-based, private broadcasting company, announced the suspension of programming late last night.
A case concerning the ownership of the TV channel is currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court.
Deputy Director and Rustavi 2 anchor Zaal Udumashvili appeared on TV before midnight on February 17 and said the channel had chosen ‘the most extreme form of protest’ because ‘no other choice was left’ for them.
Udumashvili said Rustavi 2 was switching to ‘protest-mode broadcast’ and the channel would have its ‘voice heard through silence’.
He then called on viewers to attend a protest rally, scheduled for Sunday afternoon in front of the Parliament building in Tbilisi.
Rustavi 2 went off air immediately after Udumashvili finished his address.
The Sunday protest rally was first announced by Rustavi 2 Director General Nika Gvaramia who said on February 14 that the court proceedings on Rustavi 2 case were coming to an end and people needed to take to the street to demand ‘fair justice’ and protect ‘freedom of speech’.
Agenda.ge asked Nino Japiashvili, board member of the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, to assess the form of protest Rustavi 2 has chosen.
Japiashvili believes that Rustavi 2’s decision to suspend broadcasting serves to convey three main messages:
- Calling for support of its viewers;
- Showing its viewers what life could be like without Rustavi 2;
- Stressing the importance of Sunday’s rally and showing that now is the critical moment for viewers to stand by the TV channel.
Japiashvili believes that the channel will resume broadcasting tomorrow, otherwise Rustavi 2 will have no other means to report on its rally.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia upheld a previous ruling by Tbilisi City Court, which ruled the only legal owner of 100 percent shares of the private TV company was Qibar Khalvashi, the channel’s former owner.
The verdict about the much anticipated Rustavi 2 case has been delivered today - Tbilisi City Court ruled the only legal owner of 100 percent of shares of the TV company was Qibar Khalvashi, the channel’s former owner.
A statement made by the director of private broadcasting company Rustavi 2 TV, which has become the subject of a legal depute between its current and former owners two months ago, is causing a stir and gaining a range of assessments in Georgia.
"As Prime Minister and as a citizen, I fully support any kind restoration of justice but in my opinion this is a controversy of two subjects which should go before judges at the court,” Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili told local media.
Tbilisi-based, private broadcasting company Rustavj 2 is holding a protest really in central Tbilisi this afternoon.
Current Director General of one of Georgia’s largest TV channels, Rustavi 2 has offered to purchase the company's shares from its current owner Kibar Khalvashi.
The Government of Georgia believes the independence of Rustavi 2 – one of the country’s largest private broadcasting companies – will be guaranteed under the global new leadership of Kibar Khalvashi.
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has called on the public to refrain from incendiary actions with respect to the Rustavi 2 case verdict and to await for the decision of the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.