Georgian pro-opposition TV channel 'faces closure' amid internal conflict
Live on air, Mtavari’s director accused a major shareholder of sabotage, claiming that he was colluding with Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Live on air, Mtavari’s director accused a major shareholder of sabotage, claiming that he was colluding with Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili.
The Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) satisfied the ruling Georgian Dream party’s complaint against the opposition channel Mtavari Arkhi, and has filed a violation protocol against the TV company for not airing its political advertisement. GNCC stated on Wednesday that according to Mtavari Arkhi, the advertisement’s placement might be against the prohibition of spreading hate speech as stated in the Broadcasting Law. During the pre-election period, all community broadcast
Nika Gvaramia has formally resigned as opposition TV Mtavari Arkhi’s general director, transferring his shares to his wife ahead of his return to politics. Gvaramia announced his departure from Mtavari Arkhi and the handover of his shares on Wednesday, stating that owning stakes in the channel was ‘incompatible with the party position that I will hold in the coming days’. ‘That’s why I complied with the requirements of the law and transferred the share to my [wife] Sofo [Liluashvili]’, said
The websites of Georgia’s President and two leading TV stations have been temporarily taken offline in an apparent cyberattack by Russian hackers. The website of Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili was offline on Friday morning, with local media reporting that the site initially displayed a message attributing the attack to a Russian hacking network. Screenshots purportedly of the site showed the message ‘HACKED BY COZY BEAR SLAVA [glory to] RUSSIA’ on a black background with an image of
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has pardoned Nika Gvaramia, the imprisoned head of pro-opposition TV channel Mtavari, three days after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction. Gvaramia was convicted by Tbilisi City Court in May 2022 for allegedly embezzling money as the director of another TV company, Rustavi 2. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. His imprisonment, widely seen as being politically motivated, had been condemned internationally, including by the US a
The newly appointed president of Georgia’s National Academy of Sciences has promised to grant full membership of the academy, a position known as ‘academician’, to the Prime Minister after being asked to do so by a journalist posing as one of the PM’s team. On Sunday, TV station Mtavari aired a phone conversation between journalist Beka Korshia and Roin Metreveli, the 83-year-old former Soviet official who was appointed to head the academy on 7 June. In the call, which took place on Metrevel
News crews from two TV Channels — Mtavari and Formula — have been attacked while on duty in two separate incidents over the past two days in Georgia. In the early hours of Friday morning, Ema Gogokhia, a Zugdidi correspondent from opposition TV channel Mtavari, reported that she and her camera operator were attacked outside the office of the Conservative Movement, a party established by the extremist pro-Russian group Alt Info. Gogokhia said that she was injured and their equipment was dest