Tbilisi to News Corp.: Show Us the Ownership Documents for Pro-Opposition TV Station

As preparations begin for the official start of Georgia's presidential campaign, the Georgian government has opted to clear the way for the re-opening of pro-opposition television station Imedi.

In a televised statement on December 3, Acting President Nino Burjanadze asked prosecutors to petition the Tbilisi City Court to restore Imedi's broadcast license and to allow the company full access to its assets, which were frozen after the November 7 demonstrations. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Burjanadze stated that Imedi technical staff would be able to enter the station on December 5 to prepare to resume broadcasts. Georgia's foreign patrons, in particular the United States and European Union, have been calling for Imedi's reopening since shortly after President Mikheil Saakashvili's administration imposed a state of emergency in Georgia. The broadcast ban remained in place even after the lifting of state-of-emergency restrictions on November 16. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The preliminary steps to let Imedi back on the air do not necessarily guarantee an early resumption of broadcasts. Talks with News Corp., which announced in October that it had taken over ownership of the station, are continuing, Burjanadze said. The government has given the company until December 7 to respond to conditions it set earlier for the station's reopening, according to Burjanadze.

Despite wrangling with News Corp., the decision to move toward reopening Imedi was prompted by the importance of the upcoming January 5 presidential election, Burjanadze said. It will be a vote, she said, that will "define the country's future existence."

At a press conference in Tbilisi shortly after Burjanadze's announcement, European Commission Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby said that the December 3 decision "will remove the question marks that we have had on the media issues in the run-up to the presidential campaign."

"As far as we understand, this means that Imedi television will be able to be back on the air by the end of the week, Friday; that is, by the start of the presidential campaign," Semneby said. He noted, however, that that understanding applied only to the removal of legal obstacles – not to the station's technical readiness to resume broadcasts.

In recent weeks, Washington and Brussels, along with various international organizations, had been exerting consistent pressure on the Georgian government on the Imedi issue. On December 1, Polish mediator Adam Michnik pledged that if Imedi did not open within one week, "I will be obliged to say in all possible media outlets that the government of Georgia does not want pluralism in the media, especially during the election period." The Georgian government and the European Commission had invited Michnik, one of the organizers of the Solidarity movement and editor of Warsaw's Gazeta Wyborcza, to seek a resolution to the Imedi standoff.

While government supporters and ministers have repeatedly stressed their desire to see Imedi back on the air, Burjanadze's statement is the first official mention of a concrete deadline for any move to reopen the station.

On November 28, National Security Council Chairman Alexander Lomaia and Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze outlined three conditions that Imedi must meet before being allowed to broadcast. The two officials demanded that the station clarify its ownership, undergo a quarterly financial probe and adhere to "compulsory" ethics.

Police closed Imedi television on November 7, after forcibly dispersing demonstrations in Tbilisi. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Officials claim the station was part of a larger plot to overthrow the government, engineered by presidential hopeful Badri Patarkatsishvili, a major Imedi stakeholder. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Imedi's current operator, News Corp., denies any wrongdoing.

Lewis Robertson, the executive director of News Media Caucasus and director general of Imedi TV-radio broadcasting company, told EurasiaNet on December 1 that the television station has not agreed to any of the government's conditions for reopening, other than to the establishment of a media council to oversee the partiality of Georgian media outlets. Michnik also proposed creating a group to monitor media content in the country.

Speaking before Burjanadze's statement, Robertson said that it would be "good" if the station reopened in a week, but noted that the chances are slim. "[I]f we can get back on the air in a week that is very good, but let's not kid ourselves," he said at the press conference Saturday. "[A] television station was taken off the air by riot police. People were abused, assaulted, and the television station had not done anything wrong." During the immediate aftermath of the Imedi raid, News Corp. representatives accused special police of causing such extensive damage that the broadcaster would not be able to resume broadcasting for months. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Government officials maintain that while News Corp claims it manages the station, the exact ownership structure of Imedi remains unclear. According to Givi Targamadze, chairman of the Georgian parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security, it is "natural" that the government wants to know "with whom it is dealing." In an interview published in the November 29 edition of the Rezonansi (Resonance) daily, Targamadze affirmed that there are no documents that state what percent of the television company is actually owned by News Corp.

If News Corp. does not own the company, he said, "there are suspicions that, in this case, the name of News Corp. was simply used as a cover . . . to protect the concrete political interests of the TV channel."

Robertson shrugged off accusations that Patarkatsishvili is involved in the station at all. Patarkatsishvili gave News Corp. power of attorney over the station when he decided to run for president in October. "We received the authority to manage the television station, to be totally responsible for it and Badri [Patarkatsishvili] has no say so in how the television station is operated from a financial standpoint, from a programming standpoint, from a news standpoint -- pick a standpoint," Robertson told EurasiaNet. "He has no input at all."

He also denied government accusations that the transfer of power was illegal. On November 28, National Security Council Chairman Lomaia stated that the one-page document is "absolutely unclear" and in "violation of the law on broadcasting."

Robertson responded that the practice of handing over power of attorney is common and completely legal. The deal, he noted, wasn't "anything unusual" for News Corp.

On November 29, a Tbilisi court gave the Revenue Service a 15-day permit to examine the station's finances. The ruling coincided with financial probes into several other businesses associated with Patarkatsishvili.

The government in the past week has also increasingly focused on what it describes as a need for tighter supervision of media ethics and professional standards. National Security Council Chairman Lomaia told the Pirveli news agency that the Central Election Commission will sign a contract with a company to monitor daily the frequency with which campaign ads are featured on television; similar scrutiny could be directed at print media, as well, he said.

In remarks to Rezonansi on November 29, CEC spokesperson Natalia Chkheidze said that one company is expected to be named "within the next few days" to monitor both television and print media. Chkheidze maintained that international standards for media monitoring would be followed.

Discussion of standards also featured prominently at a December 1 meeting with Georgian media and civil society representatives attended by National Security Council Chairman Lomaia, Central Election Commission Chairperson Levan Tarkhinshvili and influential National Movement parliamentarian Giga Bokeria.

For media analyst Ia Antadze such discussions, while positive, are only a beginning. "Now they should turn it on without preconditions," she said, in reference to Imedi. "Then we can all talk about principles that we will follow."