Arrested TV Anchor Accused of Extortion
Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said at a news conference that Shalva Ramishvili, the anchor of the popular political talk-show ?Debates? on the private television station 202, was arrested on extortion charges on August 27.
?We had information that cases of extortion and blackmail were occurring in the free media. Today we carried out a special operation and as a result a very upsetting thing has happened; I have long had friendly relations with the arrested person [Shalva Ramishvili],? Merabishvili said.
Merabishvili did not specified details of the case at the news conference, but the Interior Ministry has issued a footage shot by hidden camera showing a parliamentarian from the ruling National Movement party Koba Bekauri (the hidden camera was attached on Bekauri?s shirt) meeting with Shalva Ramishvili.
The footage, which was broadcasted by the Georgian television, shows Bekauri giving Ramishvili a bundle of money and telling him: ?Shalva, I will give you rest – 50, or 70 thousand later; here is 30 thousand.? After taking the money Ramishvili tells to Bekauri that the latter has to give him 70 thousand more. In the conversation they did not mention whether the sum was in Georgian Lari or another currency.
As the footage was not followed by comments it remains unclear as to what the deal pertained to. However, in the conversation Bekauri mentions that ?Komakhidze is calling me.? Ramishvili replies that he should not worry about Komakhidze?s phone calls.
They did not specify who the person with the last name Komakhidze is. But there is a prominent journalist Vakhtang Komakhidze, who works in an organization of the name ? ?Reporter,? which produces journalistic investigation programs for 202 television.
At the news conference on August 27, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said, that ?unfortunately these kinds of cases take place in the media as well. We should fight against this together .?
?Along with the Customs Office, the Tax Department and other state agencies, the media must also be free of corruption,? Merabishvili added.
He said that the Interior Ministry will supply the details of the investigation later.
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