The evening of December 6 Imedi TV employees entered their network’s offices for the first time since it was raided without warning nearly a month before, as a violent crackdown on anti-government protests in Tbilisi threatened to spiral out of control.

Imedi executives, speaking after touring the station’s damaged facilities, said the network will not be able to resume broadcasts immediately.

“The monitors are destroyed, some [equipment] has been taken away, including computers from the control room,” managing director Bidzina Baratashvili told journalists.

Two evenings later, Imedi briefly aired music and footage of Georgian towns as a test of its broadcast capabilities; the broadcast reportedly could be seen in only some portions of the country.

Imedi representatives could not predict exactly when their news bulletins could return to the air, and were not available for further comment on Sunday.

According to the head of political programming, Giorgi Targamadze, key parts of the station’s equipment were systematically disabled or destroyed in the raid.

The government has promised compensation for the damage.

Human Rights Ombudsman Sozar Subari, inspecting the damage with Imedi employees, demanded an immediate investigation into the raid.

“There must be an investigation into who ordered [the police] to attack Imedi TV illegally. What they have done is barbaric, and must be punished according to law,” Subari told journalists the night the station was reopened.

Special forces troops raided and ransacked Imedi TV’s offices on November 7, the day anti-government protests turned violent after authorities moved in to disperse demonstrators. The government alleges Imedi aired calls for the overthrow of the state at the behest of its founder, wealthy businessman and presidential candidate Badri Patarkatsishvili.

The raid and accompanying shutdown of all Georgian news media prompted international concern and some sharply-worded reprimands from Tbilisi’s allies in the West. The reopening of Imedi TV, which was kept off-air by government order after other networks were allowed to resume news broadcasts, became a focal point as campaigning began for the January 5 snap presidential election.

The decision to reopen Imedi reversed an earlier ruling by the Georgian National Communications Commission which would have kept the network closed until February 2008.

Shortly after Imedi’s premises were reopened, Patarkatsishvili released a statement praising the network as representing something special for Georgia.

“I have a special attitude towards this decision. I created Imedi… [but] it has not been mine for a long time. Imedi is the property of the Georgian people,” the statement reads.

Imedi CEO F. Lewis Robertson asserted that day that Patarkatsishvili “does not interfere in the management” of the television station after signing over management rights to News Corp in October.

Radio Imedi, meanwhile, has resumed broadcasting. The radio station, shut down the same day as Imedi’s television channel, expects to be airing all its regular programming beginning from this week, according to Nona Kandiashvili, the station’s director general.

The radio station did not suffer the equipment damage Imedi TV did, but its premises were sealed off by police. Imedi representatives say the shut down of the radio station was illegal, done without supporting decisions from either a court or the Georgian National Communications Commission.

Davit Bakradze, the State Minister for Conflict Resolution and a spokesman for Saakashvili’s presidential campaign, made a statement welcoming the reopening of Imedi. In a reversal of the ruling party’s previous avoidance of the network, Bakradze said the government is ready to send its representatives to political talk shows and debates on Imedi TV.

Most of Imedi’s journalists are professional and ethical, Bakradze said. In a clear reference to Patarkatsishvili, he added that he regretted some were exploited by “a dishonest force” for political ends.