**Updates IFEX alert of 1 March 2000** (WAN/IFEX) – In a 6 March 2000 letter to President Eduard Shevardnadze, WAN and the World Editors Forum, which represent more than 17,000 publications in ninety-three countries, expressed serious concern at the disputed takeover of the independent television station Telekanal 25 in the Ajarian capital of Batumi. According […]
**Updates IFEX alert of 1 March 2000**
(WAN/IFEX) – In a 6 March 2000 letter to President Eduard Shevardnadze, WAN and the World Editors Forum, which represent more than 17,000 publications in ninety-three countries, expressed serious concern at the disputed takeover of the independent television station Telekanal 25 in the Ajarian capital of Batumi.
According to reports, on 19 February Aslan Smirba, a member of the Georgian parliament and former Batumi mayor, forced three of Telekanal 25’s four owners to sign over seventy-five per cent of the station’s shares to Mikhail Gagoshidze, a third party chosen by Smirba to be the station’s nominal owner. The circumstances of the transaction remain disputed, although all of the station’s journalists and most of its technicians have resigned in protest.
Telekanal 25 is the only independent station in Ajaria and the sole alternative to the state-owned channel, Ajaria TV. Smirba has reportedly often criticised Telekanal 25’s coverage.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
- expressing concern at events leading up to the takeover
- respectfully calling on him to launch an immediate investigation so that a court or other competent, independent body can fully examine the circumstances of the sale
Appeals To
His Excellency Eduard Shevardnadze
President of Georgia
Plekhanova 103
Tbilisi 880064
Georgia
Fax: +99 532 990 879
E-mail: office@presidpress.gov.ge
Please copy appeals to WAN.
