Ex-Director of Rustavi 2 announces the opening of a new channel in mid-autumn
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, July 29
Former Director-General of Rustavi 2 Nika Gvaramia, who was dismissed from the post on July 18 by the new owner of the channel, says that he has attracted investments to open the “best channel” in the country in mid-autumn 2019.
Gvaramia, who served as education and justice minister under the United National Movement leadership, told the Radio Liberty that the initial money needed for the channel is half million GEL.
“However, we will also launch a public campaign to raise additional funds,” Gvaramia wrote on his Facebook page.
He said that the name of the channel is also agreed, refrained from sharing it.
He also refrained from saying whether the journalists of Rustavi 2 join the new team.
“I will make the statement a bit later,” Gvaramia said.
One of the former shareholders of Rustavi 2 Nino Nizharadze said before Gvaramia made the announcement, that he used to sign “financially unjustified” deals with other companies to accumulate money to later open a new channel.
On July 16 she addressed the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office to start an investigation against Gvaramia.
Nizharadze stated that the reason for the accumulation of funds in “allied companies” was the upcoming verdict of the European Court of Human Rights on the ownership dispute of Rustavi 2.
She said that if the court ruled that the channel must be returned to its former owner Kibar Khalvashi, as it was ruled by all three courts of Georgia in 2017, the current owners would have resources to open other media outlet.
On July 18, 2019, the European Court of Human Rights allowed the return of 100 percent of shares to Khalvashi, who disputed that the channel was illegally seized from him by the United National Movement government in 2006.
The first thing Khalvashi did was the dismissal of Gvaramia, saying that “he [Gvaramia] was appointed by the regime which illegally seized my shares.”
Gvaramia had run Rustavi 2 from November 2012 to July 2019.
