“I am fortunate enough to be able to visit broadcasters all around the world, not just Europe. And I mean this genuinely, this building is world-class,” said Noel Curran, Director General of the European Broadcasting Union, during his speech at the opening ceremony of the new building of the GPB First Channel on Politkovskaya Street.

Noel Curran went on to say that “The use of shared space, the architecture, the technology, it really is top of the class.”

“Prime Minister, Chair of Parliament, Mayor, all other dignitaries and journalists and staff from GPB, it’s great to be here. I’m only going to say a few words. In fact, I’m only going to say one word. Congratulations. This is fantastic. I am fortunate enough to be able to visit broadcasters all around the world, not just Europe. And I mean this genuinely, this building is world-class.

The use of shared space, the architecture, the technology, it really is top of the class. And I want to congratulate everyone. I want to congratulate Georgia. Georgia, a really modern, progressive. It’s a society moving forward, and this building is a symbol of that.

I want to congratulate Tinatin, who is a huge figure in European and world broadcasting and a huge champion for Georgia, and you see why. I want to thank Vasili, and everyone from the board and council who pushed this. Vasili showed me around this building in a hard hat 10 months ago and knew everything about it. So there’s been a lot of support from the very top nationally down to people on the ground and journalists on the ground.

And for me, what this building talks about is innovation, creativity. It talks about dynamism, moving forward. And that’s what we need to do. Public service media is vital. Vital for society. Independent journalism is a hearthstone of democracy. It’s important, public service media is important culturally, it’s important economically, but we can’t stand still. We have to transform, innovate, move forward, and that’s what we’re seeing here today.

So I really mean congratulations, everybody. This is an extraordinary achievement and EBU, we will fully support you, fully support you as you pursue independent journalism and as you pursue all of the cultural exploits that you do,” Noel Curran stated.