The government must return Imedi TV to air within a week or face international condemnation, a media activist announced on December 1 following high-level talks in Tbilisi.

Adam Michnik, an influential Polish newspaper editor and media activist, said that if the Georgian government does not allow Imedi TV to resume broadcasting by this deadline, he will declare through “all possible media outlets in the world” that it is blocking “media pluralism” in the run-up to the January presidential election.

“I’ll also have to report that this is a threat to democracy in Georgia,” he added.

The announcement comes a week after an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) media freedom representative failed to secure a commitment from the government to allow Imedi TV to restart broadcasting, but expressed optimism that “media pluralism” would be restored by early December.

Imedi TV, which was founded by Georgian business mogul and presidential hopeful Badri Patarkatsishvili, stopped broadcasting on November 7 when police raided its premises following the government crackdown on protestors.

The Georgian National Communications Commission revoked Imedi TV’s broadcast license for three months following accusations that it had aired statements encouraging the overthrow of the regime.

Michnik was formally invited to Tbilisi by the government after the EU appointed the media activist as an envoy to mediate on the Imedi issue.

His announcement on Saturday came after a series of meetings he held last week with government officials, including acting president Nino Burjanadze, opposition figures, and journalists.

Discussing the government allegations against Imedi, Michnik said, “If there was any appeal to violence by any media outlet, that is not in line with European standards.”

EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby—who accompanied Michnik to Tbilisi—said that, while he had not received “100 percent assurance” that Imedi TV would be back on air within a week, he was more optimistic than at the start of his trip.

Michnik said he would be willing to chair a media watchdog—proposed by Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze last week to monitor journalism ethics and standards in Georgia—so long as all five members of the body were chosen by him and not “a political force”.

Meanwhile Imedi journalists walked out of a discussion on Saturday at the Tbilisi Marriott hotel with government officials, including influential MP Giga Bokeria and National Security Council Secretary Kakha Lomaia, in protest at the “unsatisfactory answers” to their questions regarding the station’s broadcast license suspension.