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

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

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

For further comment, please contact Mark Hauf on +44-(0)7726-361-037 or info@mediafreedomforgeorgia.com

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