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Georgia Allows Return of Indy Broadcaster
Under pressure from the West, Acting President of Georgia Nino Burjanadze requested yesterday that the prosecutor general's office release the property of Imedi television company. At a briefing devoted to the topic, Burjanadze spoke of “the need to ensure equal opportunities to the media in the pre-election period” in spite of the fact that “that television company still belongs to one of the presidential candidates, Badri Patarkatsishvili.”
A number of Western countries had made it that they would not recognize the Georgian elections as democratic if the station remained off the air. Burjanadze did not deny their influence on her decision to seek the reopening of the station.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. owns 49 percent of Imedi, and Georgian authorities are in talks with that company trying to convince it to buy the remaining share in it from Patarkatsishvili. If they are successful, they hope to be able to buy the troublesome station from Murdoch later. There are reports that the Georgian government offered Patarkatsishvili a license to manage the country's entire railroad system two years ago in exchange for selling Imedi, but the businessman refused.
The negotiations with News Corp. have not been officially confirmed. Imedi hopes to be back on the air by Friday. Observers say that that is when the real presidential election campaign will begin.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 04, 2007
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