The employees of Adjara TV and Radio company held a protest rally today against Giorgi Kokhreidze, who was elected as the new director of the broadcaster on November 22.

Journalists accused him of “blackmail” and “surveillance” and demanded from him to stop “attacking and discrediting employees” as well as raising “unjustified accusations” against them.

According to the TV and Radio stuff, following the impeachment of Natia Kapanadze, former director, about 7 months ago, it was critical for the employees to ensure that the editorial policy remained independent from the Governments influence.

However, according to them, in the first place, Kokhreidze elected with the support of Georgian Dream-nominated members of the Board of Advisers, tried to revise the editorial policy and urged his deputy, Natia Zoidze, who served as acting director for 7 months, to change the terms of her contract and distance herself from the editorial activities.

“The new director accused the entire editorial board of acting under [partisan] political agenda, partiality and staging shows. He told us that we are biased, he does not trust the reports on our activities prepared by international organizations, including either OSCE, or recently published rankings”, - said Adjara TV representatives.

They asked new director to stop “unreasonable allegations, surveillance, blackmail, assault on employees”: “We also urge those who supported Giorgi Kokhreidze and those who supported the Georgian Dream’s advisers to elect him to share responsibility for the ongoing processes on Adjara Public Broadcaster”.