Demand for Ethnic Minority Seat on Public TV Board
An ethnic minority council within the Georgian Public Defender’s Office (PDO) has demanded a seat on the new board of trustees of the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB).
There are 235 applicants for the nine-seat board. Parliament is expected to approve the new board this week through an agreement between the ruling party and the opposition. Six of the 235 applicants are members of the PDO ethnic minorities council (Lali Moroshkina, Gari Augst, Mikheil Aidinov, Zaur Khalilov, Tengiz Gagloev and Marina Solomonashvili).
In an appeal sent to President Saakashvili and Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze on February 24, the council acknowledged that the GPB had recently made progress in reaching out to ethnic minority groups through its programming and editorial policy, “but that it not enough.”
The newly elected board will have to appoint a new director general, replacing Tamar Kintsurashvili. The new head is also expected to be selected by agreement between the authorities and the opposition. It has emerged recently that the opposition wants either Ia Antadze, a commentator and journalist, or Lasha Tugushi, the editor-in-chief of the daily Rezonansi to fill the position.
