Nona Suvarian, Tbilisi
Giorgi Andriadze, director of the TV Company “Iveria” accuses authorities for violating articles of the Constitutional Agreement. The TV Company has been demanding to be issued a separate frequency for a long time but in spite of all their demands the central government is not responding.
Giorgi Andriadze, the director of the Georgian TV Company “Iveria” requested frequency. He stated that the authorities have seized the frequency and taken away any possibility of continuing the channel’s broadcasting. Giorgi Andriadze expects that the frequency of the TV Company “Channel 2” would be assigned to their company. However, the authorities repeatedly ignored their petition. Moreover, the Chairman of the Georgian Parliament confirmed the resolution to change the Channel 2 into the political TV Company. Since this statement, the issue of closing down “Iveria” became center-stage in various discussions and that the TV Company was not in the position to pay taxes in future because of a lack of funding.
“Based on the current decision Georgian government took away all possibilities from us to continue broadcasting. Consequently, the Georgian TV company “Iveria” that was established under the auspices of the Georgian Patriarchate would be forced to cease broadcasting because we do not have adequate financial resources to keep working and pay taxes for the frequency.”
“We think that cooperation between the authorities and the board of the Georgian Public Broadcasting, and based their decision to change Channel 2 into a political one is contradictory. Georgian society requests that the frequency be granted to the TV Company of the Patriarchate, which was an obvious step taken against our TV Company,” stated Giorgi Andriadze.
Andriadze stated that the authorities could assign a frequency of another channel that is currently under their control. They even applied to the Commission on Frequency about the issue dating back to May 22, 2008.
“The commission members stated they had decided to not grant the frequency to any company. Afterwards, however, they made an exception and discussed the problem of the TV Company “Maestro”. It is interesting to note these things as we ourselves had applied to them with the same request. When Nino Burjanadze was Chairwoman of Parliament, we were able to work with 60 MPs and they signed a petition about the issue. However, in the final analysis neither the government nor the opposition demonstrated any seriousness in terms of our problem. Evidently, it was not within their range interests.”
Giorgi Andriadze stated that the request of the TV Company is legal. As for the government, it has violated the agreement between the State and the Georgian Orthodox Church, which states that the government should support the church in all issue that it requires from the authorities.
Article 1 of the Constitutional Agreement between the state of Georgia and the Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia states that “The state and Church confirm their readiness to cooperate through preserving the principle of inter-independence for the sake of public welfare … State and Church are authorized to sign agreements in various fields where they find common interests. The parties will conclude protocols for the implementation of the various agreements.”
Nestan Londaridze, lawyer for the Human Rights Center, states that “based on the Constitutional Agreement the State and Church have agreed to cooperate based on the principle of inter-independence. As a result, the state assumed responsibility to support the Orthodox Church for its development. But the fact that the state does not allow the Patriarchate to have its own frequency means that the former one breaches or neglects the Constitutional Agreement.”
The Georgian National Commission for Communications explained that new frequencies are currently not assigned to any companies because the commission is discussing priorities. The delay in granting the frequencies caused from the need of survey in public opinion that should be conducted every two years according to the Law on Broadcasting. The last survey was carried out in 2004, and since then, no one has enforced this legal requirement. However, members of the Commission did recall the obligation only when certain media sources needed to be granted new or modify old licenses.
At the moment, the Commission does not know when the survey ends and when TV Companies will be able to receive licenses. The survey aims to outline priorities and consequently, the survey results may demonstrate that society is not interested in programs that are transmitted by TV Company “Iveria”.
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