Human Rights Center Condemns Invasion of Erosi Kitsmarishvili and Group of Unidentified Individuals in the Yard of TV Company Maestro

Human Rights Center has been following the developments around the TV Company Maestro with alarm. The destructive actions of one of the heads of Rustavi Management Company, the managing group of TV Company Maestro and one of the leaders of Georgian Party Erosi Kitsmarishvili cause surprise.

On November 30th at 07:15 a.m. Erosi Kitsmarishvili with ten unidentified individuals climbed the fence of the yard of TV Company Maestro, closed the gate and blocked the building. Due to this development, broadcasting of Maestro halted for several hours and the viewers were unable to receive information on the recent developments.

The founder of Maestro notified the patrol police about the invasion and asked for help. The patrol police did not address the presence of unidentified individuals in the building. The founders and the employees of the TV Company were unable to restore the normal broadcasting. The broadcasting was only partially restored by the journalists and part of the technical staff who managed to enter the building. The room of broadcasting studio is closed and these people work in extreme conditions. Erosi Kitsmarishvili states that he fired the founders of the TV Company and if they do not leave the building he will break in the broadcasting studio using crow-bar.

Human Rights Center condemns invasion of Erosi Kitsmarishvili and his group in the building of independent Television and calls on him to swiftly leave the territory of the TV Company and give the journalists chance to work in normal conditions. It is inadmissible to solve the problems between the founders and managing group with such violent methods.

Maestro is an independent TV Company with high rate of objectivity. Hindering Maestro’s broadcasting violates rights of thousands of citizens.
We call on the founders of the TV Company to solve the legal conflict in another environment and give the TV field to journalists.

We call on the patrol police to free the building of TV Company from unidentified individuals and restore the working conditions for Maestro editorial team.

Human Rights Center