“In the present situation, when Georgian legislation is approaching European legislation, I believe the decision regarding Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) is not correct and we will definitely revisit it,” said Tinatin Berdzenishvili, the GPB Director General.

In Berdzenishvili’s view, “it’s not just about funding, but also about altering the rules which is the biggest problem.”

“First and foremost, it’s paramount that we understand the public broadcaster’s mission. This is an issue, in my opinion, since it’s not properly thought out, leading us to enact rules that are somewhat unjustified.

Second, we have a European financing model. Using the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) as an example, we are talking about 64 GPBs from 47 countries. It begs the question, “Why should we have such a funding rule if none of them have one?” Although it is a perfectly reasonable question, we were not permitted to ask it or receive a response.

In a very sharp letter that we also got, the Council of Europe provided several recordings of the public broadcaster’s independence and its role in the country. By the way, the Council of Europe’s most recent document deemed the existing funding model as one of the finest,” she asserted.

Berdzenishvili said, “Editorial and financial independence are crucial as it is correlated with each other.”

“We are not the prosecutor’s office or the public defender’s office, for instance; rather, we are a living entity, the media, which is administered differently throughout all of Europe.

Notably, all of our upcoming contracts will be at risk due to this change, which will take effect in January.

Since we collaborate with several outside production businesses and partner organisations and maintain close touch with the industrial and creative sectors, we assume that we won’t be able to maintain our partnerships and fulfil our contractual obligations with them.

Additionally, our new building is being built on Politkovskaya Street, which is soon to come to an end. All of this will be negatively impacted by this shift, to put it mildly,” Berdzenishvili stated.

GPB Dir/Gen dubbed the move as “incorrect” adding “We currently have duties, such as 12 recommendations and an independent public broadcaster in the main emphasis, when Georgian legislation approaches European legislation. We will surely revisit this decision since, in my opinion, it is incorrect. We have requested a meeting with the Speaker of Parliament, and I believe that we will undoubtedly reverse this very move.”