The ALDE Group in the European Parliament urges the Georgian government to ensure a free, open and pluralistic media environment in the country and to remain committed to the European values promoted through the Eastern Partnership. 

Liberals and Democrats are extremely concerned by the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to grant ownership of Rustavi2, Georgia’s most popular TV station and the only large media with clearly pro-western editorial policy, to a proxy of the Georgian Government. 

MEP, Javier Nart, (Ciudadanos, Spain) ALDE Group’s Vice-President and shadow rapporteur on Georgia, said this will limit access of the democratic opposition’s voices to Georgian broadcast media:

“Democracy in Georgia is threatened due to the political, economic and now media hegemony of one person, who, in consequence, controls the Government, the economy and now the public opinion. The decision of the Supreme Court shuts the door on a free press. There is no democracy without free public opinion, and the elections thus become a mere theatre stage. 

Georgia is Europe, and Europe is liberty and democracy. I join in solidarity with the Georgian people and the Rustavi2 journalists.”

The ownership of the Rustavi2 TV station has been specifically granted to Kibar Khalvashi, a brother of a Georgian Dream MP and proxy of oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who retains control over the decision-making of the Government.