The temporary managers controversially appointed to run Georgia’s largest private broadcaster, the pro-opposition Rustavi2, may prove to be just that — temporary. Citing a leadership “vacuum” at the station, a collegium of judges from the Tbilisi City Court on November 12 reinstated Rustavi2’s former manager, Nika Gvaramia, and removed one of the two temporary managers.
Both domestic and international observers alike had expressed strong "concern" about the Court’s earlier removal of Gvaramia and appointment of temporary managers to run the station, with many locals seeing a blatantly political motivation for the move.
On November 3, Rustavi2's majority owners, sympathetic to the government's main political foe, ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, lost control of the broadcaster after Tbilisi City Court Judge Tamaz Urtmelidze awarded it to a former owner, Kibar Khalvashi.
Georgia's highest judicial body, the Constitutional Court earlier had ruled that no changes should occur until the case had gone through appeal. Judge Urtmelidze's November-5 decision to install, nonetheless, two managers to oversee the ownership-change appeared to defy that ruling, critics alleged.
Yet the 28-member collegium’s decision is not a complete reversal of his ruling, however. Though it ditched former Rustavi2 owner Davit Dvali as a temporary manager, it left in place Revaz Sakevarishvili, a former TV executive at the pro-government national broadcaster Imedi.
Reasons for that exception were not given. No mention was made of Rustavi2’s former financial director, Kakha Damenia, who also lost his job under Judge Urtmelidze's November-5 ruling.
With one set of managers out of a job and the legal grounds for appointing the other set of managers under dispute, Rustavi2 found itself unable to meet financial, regulatory or contractual obligations -- a situation that could lead to the suspension of its broadcasting, the Georgian National Communications Commission warned on November 10.
In a November-11 interview with the daily Rezonansi, Gvaramia had said that, with no one authorized to sign off on the necessary documents, he did not see a way for the station to make unspecified payments by November 15.
He does not, however, believe that the station is on any better territory now. In comments to Rustavi2, Gvaramia, a former justice minister and deputy general prosecutor under Saakashvili, claimed that the collegium had rushed to come up with a decision about the managers since the Constitutional Court has begun deliberations on the constitutionality of their appointment.
He noted that, based on Rustavi2's registration, responsibility for meeting the company’s financial obligations, including pending tax declarations, still falls on Davit Dvali and Revaz Sakevarishvili.
“They have full access to the bank accounts. We don’t have that access and can’t help, however much they want [us to do so].”
Registration documents for Rustavi2, accessed by EurasiaNet.org, state that Dvali and Sakvarelidze act as the company’s temporary managers “until cancellation of their appointment.”
Paata Salia, the lawyer for new, court-appointed owner Kibar Khalvashi, told the station that he will decide tomorrow whether or not to appeal Dvali's dismissal.
The government, while stressing that it played no role in Urtmelidze’s rulings, appears well aware that, as Gvaramia put it, "a complete judicial mess" has been created.
In recent days, with the European Union foreign-policy boss, Federica Mogherini, in town, it has had to go on the defensive both about its commitments to media rights as well as to an independent judiciary system — two necessary ingredients for the country’s planned integration with both the EU and North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Some members of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition -- as well as its founder, influential ex-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili -- have indicated their dissatisfaction with the decision to appoint temporary managers.
With the pressure mounting, don't expect this courtroom drama to end anytime soon.
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