GEORGIA: GOVERNMENT REVIEWS MAESTRO LICENSE,

C O N F I D E N T I A L TBILISI 001890

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/10/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM GG
SUBJECT: GEORGIA: GOVERNMENT REVIEWS MAESTRO LICENSE,
AGREES TO POLITICAL PROGRAMMING

REF: TBILISI 1602

Classified By: AMBASSADOR JOHN F. TEFFT FOR REASONS 1.4 (b) AND (d).


1. (C) Summary. Speaker of Parliament Bakradze announced
October 10 that the Parliament would modify the nature of the
license for the radio station Maestro to enable it to
broadcast political talk shows. Maestro, whose request to
expand its entertainment broadcasting to include political
programming, had lost in court in its effort to gain a new
license. Deputy Foreign Minister Bokeria told emboff that
after consultations with the Parliament and the Georgian
National Communication Commission, the Government reached a
verbal deal with Maestro -- a friendly settlement that will
permit Maestro to broadcast political programs. He said that
the license would take a few weeks to go into effect, but
that Maestro would soon be back on the air. End Summary.


2. (C) Comment. In recent conversations with senior
members of Saakashvili's cabinet, Post has urged Georgia's
leadership to review closely its efforts to support a free
and independent media and to move quickly to implement the
President's ambitious reform agenda which he announced to
Parliament on September 16 (reftel A). We have urged senior
officials to take concrete steps to lead the way on
democratic reform in order to counter Russian allegations
that Saakashvili is not committed to democratic reform and to
convince skeptical European allies that Georgia is ready for
MAP accession. The Government's decision to work with
Maestro to end the licensing dispute is an important signal
that Saakashvili's government heard our concerns. End
Comment.

MAESTRO LICENSE


3. (C) Poloff met with Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria
to express concern over a recent court ruling which denied a
broadcast license to a regional cable production company
"Maestro." Maestro is financed by the brother of opposition
leader Levan Gachechiladze. In March 2008 the Georgian
National Communication Commission (GNCC) revoked their
broadcast license due to legitimate violations of their
previous broadcast license. Polof urged the government to
consider that issuance of their license at this time could
persuade critics that the President remains committed to
media freedom in Georgia. Some critics were beginning to
call for conditionality to U.S. assistance to Georgia and it
was important that President Saakashvili act decisively to
prove that conditionality was not necessary.


4. (C) The Deputy FM understood the need to revisit the
license issue and said that the government would discuss with
the GNCC. He encouraged U.S. observers to follow upcoming
domestic developments closely and promised that the
government would soon take a range of actions based on U.S.
advice and urging. In a separate meeting with Ambassador
Tefft on October 8, Speaker of the Parliament David Bakradze
also promised to review the status of the Maestro license.
On a related topic, Both Bakradze and Bokeria predicted that
a new wave of talk shows reflecting a variety of political
view points would soon be on the airwaves.


5. (SBU) On October 10, Bokeria informed the Embassy that
the government, members of the Parliamentary majority and
minority, the GNCC and representatives of Maestro had reached
a "friendly agreement" ending the dispute over Maestro's
license. Bokeria believed that the formal decision would
take several weeks to be issued, but the announcement
regarding the decision has already been made public by
Speaker Bakradze and the Parliament.

NEW PARTY FUNDING MODEL TO BE LAUNCHED
QNEW PARTY FUNDING MODEL TO BE LAUNCHED


5. (C) DFM Bokeria also informed Poloff that, as a result of
the discussion between the Secretary and President
Saakashvili in July 2008, the President had decided to
propose the German "Stiftung" model for party funding.
Details were still being worked out, but he predicted that
resources available to parties -- including those which did
not accept seats in the Parliament -- would increase
significantly. Also in response to U.S. urging, Bokeria
predicted that the new criminal procedure code could be
passed by Parliament before the end of October.
TEFFT