11:41, 24 April 2020

Rights defenders demand to stop pressing "Adjara TV" professionals

Teona Turmanidze, a journalist of the "Adjara TV", was removed from live broadcasting after her critical posts in social networks criticizing the policy of company bosses. The Georgian coalition "For Media Advocacy" has called to stop persecuting TV professionals for their position that doesn't match the bosses' one.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 22, 2019, the Adjara's Public Broadcaster Council appointed Giorgi Kokhreidze to head the TV channel. On February 24, 2020, a protest action was held in Batumi against the new leadership; its participants claimed the unfair dismissal of the channel professionals. The "International Transparency-Georgia" has demanded to investigate the allegations about pressure on journalists. On April 13, employees of the TV channel filed a lawsuit against Kokhreidze demanding to abolish the imposed disciplinary sanctions and not to interfere with journalists' work.

On February 2, Natiya Zoidze, the deputy director of the "Adjara TV", announced her dismissal after her complaints about the attempts of the new director to change the editorial policy. Kokhreidze has links with the "Georgian Dream" Party; his actions are aimed at injecting self-censorship among subordinates, analysts believe.

On April 11 and 14, Teona Turmanidze, a news presenter at the "Adjara TV", wrote critical posts on the Facebook about the channel's management; and she was removed from the air on April 21.

The Georgian coalition "For Media Advocacy" has stressed the inadmissibility of persecuting employees of the TV channel for the divergence of their position with that of the bosses.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 24, 2020 at 05:23 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Galina Gotua

Source: CK correspondent