Pro-Western forces should be strengthened both in the media and in politics, Nika Gvaramia says
By Liza Mchedlidze
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Nika Gvaramia, the general director of "Mtavari Channel", made a statement at the Tbilisi Court of Appeal, where the trial of him, Kakhaber Damenia and Zurab Iashvili is ongoing.
"Our international friends are here who have the key recipe to help us. But there are decisions that we no longer have the strength to make. Also, it is sometimes the result of our western family's silence at the wrong time, or wrong action," Nika Gvaramia said.
As Gvaramia pointed out, the civilized world has a positive obligation to somehow save nations in need.
"Our international friends, foreign friends are here, who have the main recipe on how to help us. But there are decisions that we no longer have the strength to make. This is unfortunately the result of our decisions, but it is also sometimes the result of our Western family being silent at the wrong time, or acting inappropriately. I don't really want to say that they owe it to us, but the civilized world, the liberal democracies really have a positive obligation to somehow save the nations in need when they are confronted by force majeure, first of all, of course, I mean Russia. - said Gvaramia.
At the same court session, Nika Gvaramia also spoke about the issue of media financing and noted that pro-Western forces should be strengthened both in the media and in politics.
"I definitely want to tell our allies that in a situation when an anti-Western force is in power in the country, when this force is prominently advertised by "Pos TV", and at the same time, the largest pro-Western force in the rating is losing its soul, in this situation, even the grantees of this force should be refused by Western funds. I will not name the organizations, potentially leading to the closure of these channels. This is the answer for the pro-Western Georgian society. Whether we like it or not, it is the way it is. The symmetric answer for these anti-Western forces is not that they publish something abhorrent and then counter-statements are spread, the symmetric answer is to strengthen the pro-Western forces in the media, if you want in politics.
It doesn't take much work to save these channels. The critical media is giving everyone a hard time right now. It turns out that "Imedi" has 102 million GEL. "Rustavi 2" had the biggest, 50 million GEL. I will not talk about "Public Broadcaster", which is better than "Imedi" in terms of quality, but it turns out that it had less funding than it. I wouldn't even think of that. Society can also save us." Gvaramia stated.
