Georgia’s TV Mtavari goes off the air

Georgia’s opposition-aligned TV station, Mtavari, has gone off the air after almost six years of broadcasting. In a public statement, the station accused a co-founder of the channel of forcing the closure, thereby aiding the Georgian Government.

Mtavari terminated its broadcast on Thursday morning.

In a statement announcing the decision, the channel said that one of its founders — an allusion to the largest shareholder, Zaza Okuashvili — of forcing the closure ‘for his own personal goals or revenge’, adding that doing so had done a ‘great service to the Russian regime’.

‘We have truly overcome the impossible, but, as has unfortunately happened many times in Georgia’s history, our fortress was breached from within even though our external enemy could not stop us’, the TV wrote on its website. ‘We were destroyed by the very people who, in their time, helped us build these impregnable walls.’

Despite shutting down its broadcasting, Mtavari vowed to continue working through its digital department on social media and its website.

On Monday, reports emerged that Mtavari’s employees had received a message from General Director Giorgi Gabunia saying that the channel’s broadcasting would be ending completely as of 1 May.

In recent months, its broadcasting has become increasingly restricted, with news and other live programmes coming to a halt and the channel instead airing TV series, films, and older programmes. Additionally, Mtavari’s broadcasting signal was cut off for viewers who received it via satellite in Georgia’s regions or abroad.

Reports of an internal conflict within the channel emerged in late 2024, when Gabunia accused Okuashvili of deliberately sabotaging the channel.

In February, Mtavari said that its network had stopped broadcasting due to a ‘financial crisis created by the channel’s co-founder, Zaza Okuashvili’.

In January, the channel claimed that Okuashvili had been ‘systematically following the path characteristic of the Russian regime [meaning the ruling Georgian Dream party] and gradually closing the channel, which for five years firmly maintained the status of the country’s most influential critical media outlet’.

On 27 January, Mtavari claimed the reason for the crisis was due to director Gogi Kurdadze’s refusal to transfer money to service providers, and that bills had been accumulating in the sales accounts for months. Kurdadze was appointed by Okuashvili.

Okuashvili has hit back by accusing Gabunia and former director, Nika Gvaramia, of financial mismanagement.

‘Their actions are a prime example of how one can hide behind the guise of media, loot a television company at the expense of employees’ patience and the country’s current situation, and turn the channel into an international money-laundering machine worth millions of dollars’, Okuashvili stated at the time.

Okuashvili also dismissed the suggestion that he was shutting down the channel on behalf of the ruling Georgian Dream party, pointing to several personal and legal conflicts he has been embroiled in with the party and its billionaire founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, including the notorious Omega Tapes scandal.

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Mtavari was founded by opposition figure Nika Gvaramia and others in 2019, after the European Court of Human Rights greenlit the transfer of ownership of TV channel Rustavi 2 to a previous owner. Gvaramia had served as director of Rustavi 2, which had been staunchly critical of the government.

Gvaramia served as general director of Mtavari until formally resigning in April 2024 to pursue a career in politics. Shortly after his resignation from Mtavari, he co-founded Ahali, an opposition party, with Nika Melia, the former chair of the United National Movement. Ahali ran in the 2024 parliamentary elections under the Coalition for Change grouping.

Upon his resignation from the channel, Gvaramia transferred his shares in Mtavari to his wife, Sofo Liluashvili. Gabunia then took over as general director with Kurdadze and Manuchar Akhalaia serving as directors.

Journalists say that Georgian opposition–aligned TV channel Mtavari will completely end broadcasting

The channel said that since February only recorded programmes, repeats of old programmes, TV series, and films have been broadcasted.

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