Maestro TV Staff Rallies Outside Police Station
Maestro TV staff, joined by journalist from some other media outlets and several opposition figures, rallied outside one of the police stations in Tbilisi on December 16, protesting against, what they say, police ignorance of their legitimate demand to evict Erosi Kitsmarishvili, a founder of Maestro TV’s managing firm, from the television station’s office.
The Tbilisi-based television station became embroiled in a conflict between its owners and the founder of its managing firm late last month, which eventually led to the Maestro TV owners and staff to vacate their office in a rented house on December 1. Since then Maestro TV continues broadcasting with limited capacity from the office of an affiliated Tbilisi-based FM radio station.
Maestro TV is available on cable networks, but no longer through satellite. Equipment required for the TV station to broadcast via satellite was left in the office, vacated by the owners and the staff late on December 1. Kitsmarishvili is now in control of the office, as well as the satellite broadcasting equipment.
Maestro TV owners and management appealed the police earlier this month requesting to evict Kitsmarishvili from the station’s office to allow the TV channel continue working in its normal mode. But as the station’s owners and management say the police declined to intervene on the grounds that it was a dispute within a private company that should be addressed by the court. Mamuka Glonti, co-owner of the TV station, said the authorities’ reluctance to intervene was a sign for him that Kitsmarishvili was in fact acting with backing from the authorities.
Meanwhile, Erosi Kitsmarishvili, who says that has the right to manage the TV station for one more year, said on December 16, that he would sue Maestro TV co-owners and demand compensation of USD 4.5 million, which, he claims he has “attracted” into the station since taking over its management in late 2009. In addition, Kitsmarishvili said, he would demand USD 2.5 million for financial losses he had allegedly sustained since the conflict began.
Earlier court ruled positively on Kitsmarishvili’s request for an interim measure to impound the TV stations shares, which means that its co-owners have no right to sell their shares pending court proceedings. The co-owners said the ruling, which does not affect TV station’s operation, was not a problem for them as they were not anyway going to sell their shares.
Maestro TV journalists and management said that they would continue protest rallies and the next one would be held outside the President’s office on December 20.
