Protest Warning over Imedi

Equality Institute, a non-governmental organization actively involved in recent anti-government demonstrations, said it would begin ?permanent protest rallies? from December 4 if Imedi TV were not back on air by then.

Activists from the group gathered on November 30 outside acting President Nino Burjanadze?s house in Tbilisi to demand the re-opening of Imedi TV.

Meanwhile, Georgian media insiders said on Friday that Imedi might be reopened on December 5. There has been no official confirmation.

Giorgi Targamadze, an anchor and head of Imedi TV?s political programs, said on November 30 that he was optimistic that the station would reopen, after a series of meeting with Adam Michnik, a former Polish human rights activist and editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, a major Polish newspaper. Michnik has been sent by the EU to help resolve the Imedi TV impasse.

?Negotiations which are currently being carried out by Mr. Michnik give us hope that the issue of re-opening Imedi will be resolved positively and that all journalists, including those from Imedi TV, will be able to practice their profession in a normal way ahead of the elections,? Targamadze said.

Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, said on November 23 in Tbilisi that there was a readiness among the Georgian authorities to let Imedi TV back on air at the beginning of December.

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