TV Station Protests over Refusal on Political Programming

Tbilisi-based Maestro TV staff rallied outside Parliament on April 14 to protest against the authorities’ refusal to issue a license for political programming.

The staff, including the TV station’s founder, Mamuka Glonti, stood with bandanas over their mouths. “We are not allowed to speak,” Tamar Chikovani, a journalist and anchor at the television station, said.
 
Maestro TV, which goes out on cable in Tbilisi, Rustavi, Telavi and Gori, has a license for entertainment and music programs. A few months ago the TV station, however, began three new programs dealing mainly with politics. Later the TV station received a warning letter from the GNCC, telling them the station had no right to air political programs. This prompted Maestro TV to suspend the three programs. Glonti said he had asked the GNCC for a license on political programming in November, but the commission, he claimed, had dragged its feet until April, when it eventually refused. He then appealed to the GNCC and requested they modify the station’s existing license (formally the procedure is different from the one requesting a new license). The GNCC is expected to make a decision within a month, according to Glonti.

Meanwhile, the television station plans to resume one of its suspended programs – Profession as Journalism, but with no voiceover; music will instead accompany the footage, Glonti said. He said that the program’s full version with voiceover would be available on the station’s website (the site was not up as of April 14).