PUBLIC BROADCASTING AGAIN SERVES AS OPPOSITION BATTLEGROUND

UNCLAS TBILISI 000957 SENSITIVE SIPDIS FOR EUR/PPD, EUR/CARC, AND DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM KPAO GG SUBJECT: PUBLIC BROADCASTING AGAIN SERVES AS OPPOSITION BATTLEGROUND ¶1. (SBU) Summary: On May 27 leaders of the United Opposition (UNC) accompanied by a large contingent of reporters stormed the board of the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) and the office of the Director. They presented conflicting sets of demands to the Board, the Director, and in a following press conference. Finally on June 2, 2008, the board of the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) met the United Opposition Council's (UNC) demands to air video footage showing alleged cases of irregularities during the May 21 parliamentary election, devote one hour of live airtime to the opposition three times a week, and cooperate with a monitoring group. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) On May 27, the UNC staged a rally outside the GPB premises. After making speeches at the rally, several opposition leaders went inside the building and marched into GPB General Director Levan Kubaneishvili's office unannounced and accused him of fulfilling marching orders from the authorities. ¶3. (SBU) Chief correspondent of the Reuter's Caucasus Bureau Maka Antidze was among the journalists who witnessed the protest both outside and inside GPB building. "Salome Zourabichvili was screaming at the top of her voice in Levan Kubaneisbvili's office demanding live broadcasts for the opposition and complaining about the Georgian Public Broadcaster not having aired live the [six hour long] opposition rally on May 26," She told PAS privately. She also said: "The memory of the Rose Revolution and the role Rustavi-2 played by airing live the protest rally in a non-stop mode is still fresh. No-one cared about professional journalistic standards. It was a bad precedent. This is why the opposition is so keen on airing the rallies live. They think it'll work again to bring them to power - nonsense." ¶4. (SBU) General Director Levan Kubanesivili refuted the opposition's claims in front of the cameras gathered in his office. He called for "toning down rhetoric." He also told opposition leaders that GPB allowed 39 minutes to the opposition's protest rally on May 26. PAS received from GPB a DVD footage of May 26 hourly newscasts. Each newscast opened with brief live reports from the rally site bringing an update to the viewers. When Salome Zourabishvili (of the United Opposition) claimed on GPB's Dgis Commentary on May 28 that there was insufficient coverage of the rally the host refuted her claim and showed excerpts of the 42 minutes of coverage the rally received. When faced with this evidence Zourabishvili walked off the set. ¶5. (SBU) The GPB board currently has eight instead of nine members after Irakli Tripolski, the chairman of the board resigned on May 27 because of alleged unfair coverage of the May 26 opposition protest rally. (Mr. Tripolski later changed his mind and decided to stay only if the board's authority would increase. On May 30 he changed his mind again and gave his resignation notice to the board. The opposition welcomed his decision, though the Republican Party called on him to stay on the board). ¶6. (SBU) Irma Sokhadze, a board member defending the opposition's interests does not approve of the Chairman's decision to resign. She thinks the station's programming is improving step by step and will continue so. She says the pre-election campaign was covered in as balanced a way as possible; however, she shares the opposition's complaint about insufficient airtime devoted to May 26 protest rally. "Between 10:00 a.m. and 12 p.m. we did not have any protest footage on the air," Irma Sokhadze told PAS in a private conversation. She also said she was not happy with the "imperative tone" certain opposition leaders used with the board. ¶7. (SBU) According to the Law on Broadcasting, the President will nominate the candidates for the parliament to approve the ninth member of the board. After that, the board will elect the chairman. Until then, the board remains with five government and three opposition candidates. ¶8. (SBU) OSCE/ODIHR-led international observation mission said in its preliminary report that most media outlets remain under strong influence from their owners and political patrons despite pluralistic media environment. GPB got the highest marks for fairness in reporting. The report also said that during last six weeks of the election campaign, GPB devoted similar time to the opposition (18%) and the ruling party (17%). GPB was still criticized for giving positive coverage to the ruling party while mainly neutral coverage to the UNC. ¶9. (SBU) Mamuka Pachuashvili, a GPB board member told PAS the UNC members had not submitted their finalized demands officially yet to the GPB board. Nevertheless, the board accepted the opposition's demands: a. To air the footage of alleged violations recorded on a mobile phone. b. To have opposition members on three-times weekly live political show Dgis Commentary (Comment of the Day) instead of the opposition's announcement to get one hour live airtime three times a week; and c. To cooperate with a monitoring group comprising a wide range of different civil society, media, academia and think-tank representatives, instead of the opposition's prior demand to set up an oversight body over the channel's news programs." Mr. Pachuiashvili thinks there's nothing new in this agreement as the GPB has always been responsive to general public's demands. ¶10. (SBU) Comment. Many observers think this fuss is over nothing as GPB's ratings are not high. The opposition gained public attention by storming GPB in January and demanding the resignation of the earlier board and Director. It appears that their attempt to rekindle public interest in the opposition cause through another visit to GPB has largely backfired at this point. The good news is that GPB is further committed to providing a fair platform to all parties and is increasingly seen as the most neutral forum. End Comment. TEFFT