The FINANCIAL — According to Civil Georgia, a small staff of the Tbilisi-based Maestro TV rallied outside the Parliament on April 14 to protest against the authorities’ refusal to issue a license for political programming.
The staff including the television station’s founder, Mamuka Glonti, was standing outside the Parliament with bandanas over their mouths. “We are not allowed to speak,” Tamar Chikovani, a journalist and anchor at the television station, said.
Maestro TV, which goes out on cable in the capital Tbilisi, as well as in Rustavi, Telavi and Gori, has a license for airing entertainment and music programs. Few months ago the TV station, however, also launched three new projects, which deal mainly with politics. Later the TV station has received a letter of reprimand from GNCC warning that the station had no right to air political programming, which triggered the Maestro TV to suspend airing those three programs. Mamuka Glonti, the director of the television stations, said that he had appealed to GNCC for a license on political programming in November, but the commission, he claimed, was dragging out the procedures and eventually refused in April. He then again appealed GNCC and requested to modify the television station’s existing license (formally the procedure is separate from the one requesting for a new license). GNCC is expected to take decision within a month, according to Glonti.
Meanwhile, the television station plans to resume one of its suspended programs – Profession as Journalism, but with no voiceover; music will be instead accompanying the footage, Mamuka Glonti said. He said that the program’s full version with voiceover would be available on the television’s website (the site was not running as of April 14).
Discussion about this post