Opposition and Public Broadcaster reach the agreement

Protesters in front of Television on April 9. Photo by Keti Ebanoidze

TBILISI, Georgia – Tension between the protesters and security of Georgian Public Broadcaster ended Thursday afternoon with the successful negotiation between the oppositional leaders and General Director of Public TV.

 

 

After a little discord among the representatives of the security office and protesters, who tried to forcefully intrude on the TV Company, the agreement was reached easily, said both TV and opposition representatives.

 

“We were covering the demonstration anyway. Simply they have not seen our information, and when we showed them they agreed to continue us in the same way, and try to be more objective,” said Teona Enukidze, Deputy to the General Director of Georgian Public Broadcaster.

 

On Wednesday, opposition leaders demanded that the TV station show live, non-stop coverage of the day’s demonstration, between 2-8 p.m. The disagreement on Thursday was started when the television station broadcast the protests only during their regularly scheduled news hours at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m.

 

Protesters left a mostly mild demonstration after 4 p.m. and headed back to the television station, where several people tried to force their way past a line of armed guards. A tense few minutes followed, defused when several protest leaders, including former presidential candidate Levan Gachechiladze, entered the station to negotiate for more coverage.

 

Enukidze reported they agreed upon the following points:

 

·        Public Broadcaster should broadcast full speech of the Georgian Patriarch.

·        The speeches of Oppositional leaders should be maximally broadcasted.

·        Opposition parties should permanently participate in talk shows.

·        Special statements at the protest should be broadcasted in live in any case.

 

After leaving the building of the Public Broadcaster, member of United Opposition Levan Gachechiladze announced: “Our demands are fulfilled. At 8 p.m. in the news program of the first channel of Georgia, the entire process of the April 9^th protest will be covered.”

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