Pro-opposition TV station shutters broadcast for viewers outside Tbilisi

(Updated: 1 day ago)• 4 min read

▲Mtavari’s office in Tbilisi. Photo: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.

Pro-opposition TV station shutters broadcast for viewers outside Tbilisi

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The opposition TV company Mtavari has reported that the channel has been turned off for all viewers based in Georgia’s regions and those watching abroad via satellite, adding that from February, most cable TV providers will stop broadcasting the channel.

Mtavari claimed the reason for the crisis was due to Director Gogi Kurdadze’s refusal to transfer money to the service providers, and that bills have been accumulating in the sales accounts for months.

‘[Kurdadze] does not allow these funds to be used for the benefit of the channel at all, and sends letters containing unfounded accusations and threats to our partner companies’, Mtavari’s statement read.

The statement also highlighted that Kurdadze had been appointed by Mtavari’s co-founder Zaza Okuashvili, who they claim has been ‘systematically following the path characteristic of the Russian regime and gradually closing the channel, which for five years firmly maintained the status of the country’s most influential critical media outlet’.

According to Mtavari, there has been no advertising on the channel for a month, and they lost all of their sponsors due to the expiration of the contract with the ‘sales house’. Their statement also claimed that Kurdadze, allegedly on the instructions of Okuashvili, has not been allowing for the renewal of contracts. Finally, they noted that the channel has stopped providing ratings indicators, and journalists, in most cases, are no longer able to conduct live broadcasts.

‘The actions of Zaza Okuashvili and the director managed by him, Gogi Kurdadze, represent an attempt to intentionally damage the company and shut down critical media outlets, which serves the goals of the [ruling] Georgian Dream and clearly contain signs of a criminal offense’, the statement read.

Okuashvili has not commented on the recent accusations.

The local Media Advocacy Coalition expressed concern over Mtavari’s statement, saying they see the ongoing developments around the channel as ‘a serious threat to the functioning of free media’.

‘Restricting the functioning of critical media poses a threat not only to the functioning of specific media outlets, but also directly harms the coverage of ongoing processes in the country and the public's right to be informed about important events’, the coalition’s statement read.

They called on Okuashvili and Kurdadze to stop taking steps that are aimed at restricting and ultimately terminating the television network’s activities, instead of working to strengthen the company.

‘It is especially important that the rights of the media are protected during this critical period, including those of your television employees, who have repeatedly become objects of violence and attacks, and that the quality of public awareness and coverage are not reduced or coverage is limited’.

Rumours about the channel’s financial difficulties and its possible closure have been circulating for several months.

On 11 December 2024, Mtavari’s General Director Giorgi Gabunia announced that the station was facing closure, accusing Okuashvili of sabotaging the channel.

At an emergency briefing organised by Gabunia that month, he accused Okuashvili of deciding to ‘shut down’ the channel, a plan being executed, according to Gabunia, through the director, Kurdadze.

Gabunia stated that this was ‘exactly what Bidzina Ivanishvili needs today’, seemingly alluding to the antagonism of the Georgian billionaire and Georgian Dream founder, who has been widely described as the country’s informal ruler, towards independent media critical of the government.

In response to Gabunia’s allegations, Okuashvili accused Gabunia of having his own ties to Ivanishvili. He dismissed claims of his own collusion with the billionaire as ‘comical’, pointing out that he was engaged in ‘several international legal battles’ against him.

Okuashvili has been embroiled in several conflicts with Georgian Dream since 2018, most notably the Omega Tapes scandal.

The purported secret recordings, which were leaked publicly, allegedly captured conversations with a Georgian Dream official that revealed extortion attempts targeting Okuashvili on behalf of Ivanishvili.

Also in 2018, Okuashvili was accused of exploiting a group of Georgian journalists during a financial dispute with the government.