GPB Staff call for more political programming
A group of employees of the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) have released a press release calling for the station to open its daytime television broadcast for political discussions.
They plan to hold a press conference on 23 December in front of the GPB building to discuss the issue.
The statement said that since protests broke out on 28 November, ‘the staff of the Broadcaster have been openly calling on and asking the channel’s management to respond to the public’s request and open its daytime television broadcasts for socio-political discussions at this crucial and critical time for the country’.
‘Current events oblige us to devote television airtime to dialogue on socio-political issues rather than films that have no connection with today's reality’, the statement said. It said staff had received an ‘unclear response’ from the channel’s management.
‘We were and still are ready to work proactively with management to organise the content and technical aspects of these television formats and programmes’, they noted.
In recent days, several protests have taken place near the Georgian Public Broadcaster’s building to protest the broadcaster’s editorial policy, widely seen as being pro-government, and to demand airtime.
The channel has responded to previous pressure by allocating late-night broadcasts to discuss current events, featuring both government representatives and critics. The broadcast begins at 22:00.
However, critics argue that the late-night broadcast is not enough and that daytime airtime should also be allocated.
