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Key Court Decision in Fight for Media Freedom for Georgia Family vows to Continue Battle to Regain Imedi TV Station

Posted on: Friday, 20 February 2009, 08:12 CST

TBILISI, Georgia, February 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Media freedom in Georgia took another blow today when a court ruled to award authority to execute the contested will of the late businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili to a distant relative, whom Patarkatsishvili's wife and immediate family insist is acting on behalf of the government to silence freedom of the press in that country.

Mr. Patarkatsishvili was the founder and majority owner of Imedi TV, one of Georgia's last remaining national independent news outlets until it was forcibly taken over and shut down by the government in November 2007. After Patarkatsishvili's untimely death in February 2008, a distant relative and one-time business associate, Joseph Kay, produced documents claiming to give him control over Patarkatsishvili's assets, including the Imedi TV station; the legitimacy of these documents was the focus of today's hearing.

Despite compelling evidence from a leading U.S. forensic handwriting expert who asserted the documents, including the contested will, were undoubtedly forgeries, the judge ruled to give Kay control over significant assets and barred Patarkatsishvili's wife and family from taking any independent action. The family intends to appeal the decision in Georgia and asserts the decision is politically motivated.

A family spokesperson said, "We will also continue to take our fight to international courts where we have a hope of a fair hearing, and to highlight in international fora the failure of the rule of law in Georgia which has allowed a free media to be suppressed."

The lack of independence of the judiciary in Georgia is well documented, with bodies such as Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department expressing their concern, and is part of a wider pattern of backtracking on democratic reforms. Opposition politicians in the country decry the lack of media freedom and are calling for Imedi TV to be reinstated as an independent news outlet. Georgia's own independent Human Rights Ombudsman, declared the 2007 seizure of Imedi TV unlawful, saying it was "performed absolutely illegally and its only reason was political punishment" and a Human Rights Watch report said that "the raid on and closure of Imedi television was a violation of Georgia's commitments to guaranteeing freedom of expression."

SOURCE Media Freedom for Georgia

Source: PR Newswire

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