The FINANCIAL — According to online magazine Civil Georgia, Liberty Institute, an influential non-governmental group, accused both the opposition and authorities, including the parliament and personally its speaker, Nino Burjanadze, of “crude violation” of law on public broadcasting.
Outburst against the authorities by the Liberty Institute is an extremely rare case from the group having a close links with the Saakashvili’s administration.
“We have to remind the authorities and the opposition about existing of the law on public broadcaster,” the Liberty Institute’s statement issued on February 9 reads. “We have to remind that the public TV is not in subordination to the state and the authorities.”
The Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) has become one of the reasons of discord between the authorities and opposition, with the latter demanding the GPB general director Tamar Kintsurashvili’s resignation and appointment of the new GPB board of trustees with a mutual agreement.
Tamar Kintsurashvili herself was part of the Liberty Institute, coordinating media programs there, before become the GPB director general in 2005 for a six-year term.
“The issue of dismissal of general director of the public TV should not be a matter of deal between the authorities and opposition; it in inadmissible for the democratic state,” the Liberty Institute said. “Here we should also recall the fact that the authorities requested, or demanded from remaining members of the board of trustees to resign – the statement was made by the Parliamentary Chairperson [Nino Burjanadze]… Statements that an agreement had already been reached about replacement of the public TV general director only trigger surprise.”
It also said, citing the law, that public TV general director can only be dismissed with the two-third of votes by the board of trustees. Three remaining members of the board, out of total nine, resigned last month. Parliamentary Chairperson, Nino Burjanadze, said that the process of composition of the new board would be over by the end of February.
“We call on the parliament, elected by us, refrain from interfering in the activities of the public TV,” the Liberty Institute said.
Elene Tevdoradze, a lawmaker from the ruling party who chair parliamentary committee for human rights, told the Georgian daily Rezonansi that the Liberty Institute itself was trying to influence the public TV through Tamar Kintsurashvili. “So they should not be making this kind of statements,” she said.
Levan Berdzenishvili, a lawmaker from the opposition Republican Party, told the Rezonansi that the Liberty Institute’s statement indicates that the influential group is still trying to hold a grip on political processes. “Liberty Institute itself was interfering in the public TV and they of course do not want to lose that lever,” he said. “We have witnessed for many times how [Giga] Bokeria [a lawmaker from the ruling party, who before coming into politics was the Liberty Institute activist] and [Levan] Ramishvili [head of the Liberty Institute] were interfering in the public TV’s board.”
