Opposition supporters are ready to take to the streets again if authorities does not allow the Imedi TV channel to go back on air.
Photo: AP, AP
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Everything Gets Stuck on Imedi
// Georgian opposition threatens with rallies if the TV channel is not back on air
The Georgian Parliament on Thursday endorsed new Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze who promised that the government would focus on welfare issues. Meanwhile, tensions around the opposition channel Imedi which went off air are mounting. Opposition leaders say they will resume rallying if the channel is not broadcasting again. Kommersant correspondents Olga Allenova and Vladimir Novikov report how Georgian authorities tackle the situation ahead of the presidential election.
No one doubted that the parliament would approve of the prime minister nominee as the chamber is controlled by President Mikhail Saakashvili’s National Movement. What is more, opposition factions have been boycotting the parliament’s sessions after the president ordered to disperse a rally on November 7. Mr. Gurgenidze turned up to the legislature at 11 o’clock in the morning wearing a stylish suit and an orange tie. The tie grabbed everyone’s attention. Deputies commented quietly that it had nothing to do with Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. Orange is the brand color of Bank of Georgia which has been run by Mr. Gurgenidze up until recently. He thus paid tribute to the bank which he, according to Georgian businessmen, restored from ashes and got it listed at the London Stock Exchange.
The new prime minister did not say anything new. He said that the Georgian budget would now “turn to the people”, that within a year pensions would double to $50, that Georgia would not see higher taxes (at last as long as Mr. Gurgenidze is a premier) and that they would start to fall from 2009.
“Georgia has entered a transition period,” the new prime minister said. “We are going to pay a lot of attention to welfare issues next year, so we are not going to have such a big economic growth as last year. We must be ready for that.”
The former banker called a budget surplus his major goal for 2009. Among priority industries he mentioned tourism, hydro energy industry, logistics and the banking sector, the “best in Eastern Europe”, according to him. It is in these sectors that Georgia will be able to compete with other countries.
The new prime minister spoke for about an hour in a confident voice, pronouncing foreign words with an English accent and making a good impression on the deputies. However, he said nothing about the cabinet reshuffle, and one of the lawmakers asked him why he was not changing the former Prime Minister Nogaideli’s team.
Part of the parliamentary opposition is against the appointment of Lado Gurgenidze because of this decision. Leader of the Industrialists’ Party Zurab Tkemaladze presses for the dismissal of Reforms Minister Kakha Bendukidze, an opinion also shared by the New Right. The Republican Party also pushes for the resignation of Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili. But Mr. Gurgenidze said he had decided against any shake-up before the presidential election. “We will see who is going to show their potential before the election,” he said. “Afterwards we will be making decisions on personnel reshuffling.” The prime minister has thus hinted that the ministers should help the incumbent president to win the upcoming election.
The new prime minister’s speech was finished by a ring of applause. Speaker Nino Burdzhanadze said that “Mr. Gurgenidze convincingly answered all the questions” and hinted that there would be no issues with endorsing the prime minister.
The major accusation against Lado Gurgenidze is a violent reaction to the November 7 rally. Mr.Gurgenidze spoke to the country’s business community shortly before the rally dispersal saying that the demonstration would damage Georgia’s image and informed that stocks of Bank of Georgia at the LSE were plummeting. After the emergency rule was ordered, the banker said his bank’s stocks picked up. “He openly supported those unacceptable actions of the president and that’s why he got the job,” said David Zurabishvili, one of the opposition’s leaders.
Georgian opposition continued preparations for a November 25rally at the Rike embankment. “Talks with authorities are pointless because our main demand – the opening of the Imedi TV channel – is not heard,” opposition leader Giya Tortladze told Kommersant. “There is no freedom of speech without this channel, and taking part in the election is senseless. That’s why we’re going to protest again.”
Authorities sanctioned a new rally despite fears that violence of November 7 may repeat. However, the city hall said on Thursday that an application for the rally does not include the time, and the organizers had to file more documents which limited the rally time to 6 pm on Sunday. Head of the parliament’s security committee Givi Targamadze warned those who may want to stay on. “Time has been allocated for the rally, and if the opposition does not leave at 6pm – I’m not going to say what measure we’re going to take to prevent them from using it to destabilize the situation – but we will take these measures anyway,” he said in a televised statement.
It is evident that officials are afraid that the situation will spiral out of control. If President Saakashvili steps down before November 25 as he is expected to, and will hand over powers to Nino Burdzhanadze, she will be unable to make a decision to use riot police to disperse the rally.
Authorities, however, have one way to calm down the nerves of opposition and prevent large-scale protests – it will have to open Imedi. The West has long been pressing for it. If the TV channel does not go back on air, European officials will not rule the election legitimate. Georgian officials still oppose it angrily. Deputy Prosecutor General Nika Gvaramiya told reporters that Imedi would be allowed to resume broadcasting only “if it stops assisting Badri Patarkatsishvili in his attempts of a coup d’etat”. “We will not allow anybody to put pressure on us and push through decision that will destroy the country,” the parliament’s international relations committee chairman Konstantin Gabashvili said in an interview with Kommersant. “The investigation is underway to find out whether the broadcasting of Imedi contained appeals to overthrow the government. If investigators decide that it didn’t, Imedi will be working. But you shouldn’t accuse us of boycotting Imedi. We used to go there until we realized that the evening talk show was done by people with vested interests, and there was nothing to talk about because they simply were not listening.”
Speculations spread on Thursday that Imedi would go back on air only if prominent journalists Georgy Targamadze, Inga Grigoliya and Eka Khoperiya, who authorities consider to be biased, leave the company. Ms.Khoperiya said on Thursday that she was taking a personal decision to leave television journalism showing that she was ready to sacrifice a lot to save the TV channel.
“Everyone got stuck on Imedi because of one thing,” opposition leader David Berdzenishvili told Kommersant. “Saakashvili knows that he will lose if Imedi goes on air and gives time for the opposition. That’s why authorities are now trying to force some journalists there to leave. They will scare off some, offer jobs to others, but even if they allow Imedi to resume broadcasting, the channel will be much weaker than it was before November 7.”
Olga Allenova and Vladimir Novikov
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 23, 2007
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