Court Upholds Decision Ordering Journalist to Pay Fine to Rustavi 2 TV
The Tbilisi Court of Appeals has upheld the decision of the lower instance court ordering Eka Kvesitadze, the former host of Rustavi 2 TV program, to pay a fine to the TV channel for moving to Mtavari Arkhi TV in violation of the terms of her employment contract.
The Tbilisi City Court initially ordered Eka Kvesitadze to pay GEL 25,000 to Rustavi 2 TV. However, due to the fact that the TV company itself owned about GEL 13,000 in wages, the amount was eventually reduced to GEL 12,000.
Eka Kvesitadze explained that she did not expect the Court of Appeals to change the decision and that she accepted it “calmly” because “it was an absolute formality.” She also noted that her case was considered by the same panel of judges that heard the case of Formula TV. “It was this panel that apparently had an instruction to decide all cases related to the media, or the punishment of journalists or media owners against us,” she stressed.
Ilona Diasamidze, Kvesitadze’s defense lawyer, said that the Court of Appeals had made an unjustified decision. She clarified that although the issue of imposing a fine on Rustavi 2 TV in connection with Kvesitadze’s unpaid salary did not require any explanation and was directly based on the Labor Code, the Court of Appeals did not even satisfy this request. The defense will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
Eka Kvesitadze filed a lawsuit demanding that the decision to dismiss her from Rustavi 2 on discriminatory grounds be annulled and that she be reinstated with back pay. However, in June 2022, the Tbilisi City Court rejected the journalist’s claim, recognized her dismissal in 2019 as legal and ordered her to pay a fine to the TV company for violating the terms of her employment contract. At the same time, the Tbilisi City Court ordered Rustavi 2 to pay Kvesitadze her salary.
Background
Changes began at Rustavi 2 TV after businessman Kibar Khalvashi took over the ownership of the TV channel on July 18, 2019, the same day as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) declared that there had been no violation of fair trial guarantees in the Rustavi 2 ownership dispute.
After assuming the ownership of the TV station, Khalvashi promptly sacked General Director Nika Gvaramia and replaced him with Paata Salia, his own lawyer.
Almost a month after the shares were returned, Kibar Khalvashi said he would sell the television. However, the one-week deadline to sell the television passed and no buyer came forward.
As a result, Khalvash said he was beginning to “rehabilitate” television on his own. His first obligation, he said, was to break the TV channel free from former president Mikheil Saakashvili, start working for the pepole and regaining their trust.
Then, on 19 August 2021, it was announced that the then head of the information service, Nodar Meladze, and several others had been dismissed from “Rustavi 2” because of a “conflict of interest”.
As a result, on August 22 of the same year, almost the entire crew left “Rustavi 2”. In less than a month, the employees who had left the station founded two new TV channels critical of the government – “Mtavari Channel” and “Formula”.
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