Thursday. Issue Two. August 8, 1996.

* INFORMATION AND ADVERTISING COMPANY 'GAMMA PLUS' IS PROHIBITED TO RES-
TORE THE BROADCASTING OF THE RUSTAVI-2 CHANNEL.  This was decided today by
the Mtatsminda destrict court.  For two weeks the company has the right to
appeal against the decision.  In the interview to a BGI correspondent the
founders of the channel stated that they were going to appeal to the city
court. (For more information see Details). 


D E T A I L S

                 Today the  deprivation of license from the TV channel Rus-
                 tavi-2 was heared at the Mtatsminda  district  court.  BGI
                 correspondent Nelly Mzhavanadze with the details.

- Nobody has the right to prohibit the activity of the mass media until a
final resolution of the court is passed.  That is why the defence of the
TV channel decided to take the matter to the court. 

Besides, Rustavi-2 claims compensation of moral and material damages. The
material damage is estimated at $87 500 and 9 577 laries, and the moral
damage is estimated at 1 mln.  laries.  The sum of the material damage was
legally drawn up and presented to the court today. 

Deputy chairman of the licensing commission of the Ministry of Communi-
cations Merab Chelidze has stated that the competence of the Ministry is
restricted by only issuing licenses, and that Rustavi-2's transmissions
we- re stopped on the base of the letter by the Ministry of Justuice and
the NPL studio. Hence, this letter was an additional ground. 

Representative of the Ministry of Justice has said that they deprived the
Rustavi-2 channel of the license to broadcast because of the fact that
Rustavi-2 had no right to broadcast since Gamma Plus, a part of which was
Rustavi-2, was only an advertising company and did not have the right to
own a channel. 

Responding to the judge's question on why Rustavi-2 was granted a licen-
se to broadcast earlier, representative of the Ministry of Justice has sa-
id: 

- The license was issued unlawfully.  He has also said that the letter
sent to the Ministry of Communications did not say anything about the pro-
hibition to go on the air but only said that the transmission were to be
conducted within the limits determined by the law. 

The court decided:  the advertising agency Gamma Plus is deprived of the
right to broadcast the Rustavi-2 channel. 


BLITZ POLL

              BGI correspondent Levan Gudadze conducted a poll  on  Tbilisi
              streets asking   passers-by   what  they  thought  about  the
              shut-down of the TV channel 'Rustavi-2'.

Levan Bochorishvili, a student:  "It was a good channel.  It is a pity
that it was closed down. There is no other interesting channels on the
air". 

Archil Lebanidze, a doctor: " People used to be entertained in the eve-
nings as well as used to receive reliable information.  The channel should
necessarily be restored". 

Givi Gviniashvili, an engineer: "All members of our family used to watch
this channel. We need more such channels". 

Zaira Tabatadze, a housewife:" It is not good that the channel was shut
down.  The information they used to spread did not please somebody. It
will be fair if their broadcasting is restored. 

Lia Peikrishvili, a teacher: " This is just the rule accepted in Georgia -
everything good is destroyed.  And the latest incident concerning Rusta-
vi-2 is a good example of that.  Somebody was definitely dissatisfied with
it, that is why it was shut down". 

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