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The News in Brief

Wednesday, April 6
Maestro TV Company’s new Director General

Maestro TV Company has a new Director General after Zurab Nakeuri was nominated to the post. His candidacy was supported by 80 % of the board of partners.

According to Maka Asatinai’s lawyer, Asatinai supported Nakeuri’s candidacy.

“Maka Asatiani supported this decision as there is no a danger of any dispute. Zurab Nakeuri will likely be registered as the director today and will start performing his duties. Maestro needs a manager who will solve the existing problems”, said the lawyer.

According to him, Zurab Nakeuri has already presented a plan for the solution of the company's financial problems. (IPN)



Georgian President Calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to direct efforts towards Peace

President Giorgi Margvelashvili has called on Georgia’s neighbours, Armenia and Azerbaijan, to direct efforts towards ending the renewed fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and resolve the conflict peacefully.

“In the Caucasus region, I want to call on our neighbours to direct their efforts towards ending the conflict peacefully and to defuse tensions that we see just several hundred kilometres from here, and to [address] the conflict through diplomatic means with the active involvement of the international community,” Georgia’s President said while addressing the NATO-Georgia Public Diplomacy Forum in Tbilisi on April 5. (Civil.ge)



Demand for tougher regulation of surveillance following sex tapes scandal

Organizations that are members of the This Affects You Too campaign on Monday called on the government to take measures to rein in the use of secret surveillance and wiretapping.

The groups also demand the resignation of Chief Prosecutor Irakli Shotadze.

In a statement issued on Monday, the groups claim that the vast majority of officials who served under former President Saakashvili and ordered, collected and stored videos and files depicting people in private situations and likely blackmailed them, remain unpunished.

The groups also claim that there is reasonable suspicion that those who conducted illegal surveillance continue to work within Georgia's law enforcement bodies, which brings into question the effectiveness, objectiveness and neutrality of the investigation.

Three sex tapes were uploaded to the Internet – on March 11, 14 and 31 – showing the private li es of several politicians. The last video was posted even after two people have been arrested as a result of the investigation. The clips contained warnings of more videos to come.

This Affects You Too has the following demands: to reform the State Security Service, as well as taking away the function of Internet monitoring and the access to phone surveillance from this body and transfer it to a more independent body; setting up an independent investigative body which can investigate crimes committed by officials, as according to them the government has no interest in effectively investigating such cases.

Members of the campaign are meeting with parliamentary factions to share their views related to this issue, and on Monday they met with the opposition party Free Democrats. The party fully supported the campaign.

Nino Goguadze from the Free Democrats believes that making legislation tougher is not enough and the Chief Prosecutor has to resign, as someone has to take the political responsibility.

“Particular steps need to be taken in order that one day we do not discover a giant archive of footage collected by some special service and information is leaked from his archive and used to blackmail people,” Eka Gigauri from Transparency International Georgia said after the meeting with the Free Democrats parliamentarians.

On March 23, This Affects You Too met with members of Girchi, a political party founded by former members of the United National Movement. Campaigners are also discussing their initiative with the Human Rights Committee in Parliament, which is considering an amendment to the legislation concerning secret surveillance.

This Affects You Too is a campaign that includes organizations like Education and Monitoring Center, TI Georgia, Open Society Georgia Foundation, SIDA and ISFED. (DF watch)