14 Employees Dismissed From Adjara Public Broadcaster Amid ‘Reorganization’
Fourteen employees, including journalists, have been dismissed from Adjara TV and Radio, a regional public broadcaster, as management cites a “reorganization” process, while media observers fear the move may come as part of a crackdown on critical coverage.
The news was initially reported by MediaChecker, a Georgian press platform, which cited several employees receiving identical email notifications on having their employment contracts terminated on June 2. Later, the platform said the management confirmed the dismissal of 14 employees from production and news services, citing Irakli Kikvadze, who was elected as the broadcaster director in January, as saying that the broadcaster “had to bid farewell to several employees” as part of the reorganization process.
“At this stage, due to infrastructural and other reasons, we had to cancel many programs. We also have future plans in this direction, and people will be given the opportunity to use airtime when conditions allow for it,” Kikvadze told MediaChecker.
The dismissals follow years of concerns expressed by current and former staffers about a restrictive editorial environment at Adjara TV, and come amid a reorganization and relocation process, launched earlier this spring by the broadcaster’s management, which cited engineering assessments finding the broadcaster’s headquarters to be structurally unsafe. As part of the process, management announced the temporary suspension of all programs except news digests, prompting uncertainty and fears that the move could be used to shut down critical programs and sideline journalists.
Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, a media self-regulation watchdog, called the move “unfair and unfounded,” noting that “the dismissed journalists are known for their high degree of independence and professionalism” and “they have always shown respect for different opinions and asked critical questions.”
According to the watchdog, “some of the dismissed journalists whose positions are currently known also believe that they are being targeted because of their critical views,” leading the Charter to think that the dismissals “are nothing but an attempt to rid the Adjara Public Broadcaster of critical voices, and that this selective and biased attitude towards journalists serves to clear the information space in Adjara of independent and critical perspectives for good.”
Irina Kurua, one of the dismissed journalists, described the decision as expected, arguing that critical voices within the broadcaster had increasingly come under pressure.
“I knew exactly that such a decision would be made,” Kurua told Formula TV. She said that “Satkmeli,” the program she hosted, “was one of the very few remaining spaces […] where different opinions, critical views, and critical questions could still be expressed,” and called the process “a continuation of the wave that Adjara TV has experienced, when critically minded journalists and authors of critical questions were gradually restricted in their workspace, demoted as a form of punishment, or dismissed altogether.”
Last updated: June 3, 11:45
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- 06/08/2020 – Three Dismissed Employees Reinstated in Adjara TV, Albeit on Other Positions