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TBILISI, Georgia - President Mikhail Saakashvili knows the power and the danger of television. Independent TV news helped propel him into the presidency four years ago in Georgia's Rose Revolution. Another independent station, Imedi TV, fueled discontent with Saakashvili this month when it filled the airwaves with dramatic footage of police clubbing and tear-gassing protesters.[[[Imedi took some of the harshest blows when Saakashvili cracked down: riot police beat staff and smashed equipment so badly it could keep the station closed for months,]]] according to Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. recently bought Imedi.Georgians have been stunned by Saakashvili's use of force and his decision to freeze news broadcasts, which reduced ex-Soviet nation's once-lively menu of broadcast media to soap operas, comedies and home decoration shows.[[[["We want to know both the opinion of opposition and the official government," said Tinatin Dzhaparidze, a 67-year-old retired piano teacher. "Only by comparing the two do you understand where the truth lies. Without that it is very hard. We got so used to knowing what's going on that now it is psychologically difficult."]]]]Many Georgians see Imedi today as a successor to another independent station, Rustavi 2, which played a key role in the Rose Revolution. Saakashvili, who led the protests which ousted President Eduard Shevardnadze, was a frequent guest at Rustavi 2 studios, rallying his supporters with ardent speeches.Imedi, founded in 2002 by tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili, became increasingly critical of the authorities after its founder fell out with the government in 2006 amid business disputes and other arguments.This month, Imedi filled the airwaves with round-the-clock images of opposition protests, just as Rustavi 2 did in the fall of 2003. But unlike Shevardnadze, the ex-Soviet foreign minister who was reluctant to use of force and stepped down, Saakashvili acted quickly and strongly against protesters who say he has curtailed individual rights and mismanaged the economy.Officials accused Imedi of becoming an opposition mouthpiece and boycotted the station.And just a few hours after Imedi broadcast live footage of police beating demonstrators with truncheons in blue clouds of tear gas, authorities sent 200 riot police to throw it off the air.Lewis Robertson, an American who is the channel's director, said troops stormed in three hours before Saakashvili announced a state of emergency. Much of the station's equipment was destroyed and employees were tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets, he said. A woman who was nine months pregnant was forced to lie on the floor with a gun pointed at her head, he said.
"It was brutal, and there was no reason for it," Robertson said. "Right now the country is getting information from one channel and one channel only-that's not democracy, that's not freedom of speech, freedom of the press."He predicted it could take several months to repair the equipment and get the station back on the air.In a telephone interview Thursday, Murdoch deplored the attack."We're shocked and horrified that, in what was allegedly a democratic country, something like this could happen ... that, effectively, stations are put off the air," Murdoch told the AP.Officials defended the crackdown on Imedi by saying that the station had aired opposition leaders' calls for ousting the government by force.When Imedi and a smaller independent station, Kavkasia, were taken off the air, Rustavi 2 and other stations continued broadcasting footage of the crackdown and giving floor to some opposition figures.But this relative freedom only lasted for few more hours. Saakashvili extended the 15-day state of emergency from Tbilisi to the entire nation and ordered all news broadcasts except the single state-controlled broadcaster of the air.The order has raised questions about Saakashvili's commitment to democracy and drawn condemnation from the West.The United States and Europe's top security body sent envoys to Georgia to urge Saakashvili to lift the ban and ensure that upcoming elections are free. Western diplomats warned that the crackdown may bode ill for efforts to win NATO and European Union membership for this small Caucasus nation.In an apparent move to end the political crisis and defuse foreign criticism, Saakashvili announced an early presidential election on Jan. 5 and offered minor concessions to the opposition.But opposition figures said that the state of emergency and the ban on news broadcasts would make it hard to mount a serious campaign.Since the state of emergency was imposed Wednesday, Rustavi 2 has aired home decoration shows and comedy series in place of hourly news programs. Only a handful of its 150 reporters, cameramen and producers were working in the usually crowded newsroom in Tbilisi. Computers and cameras had been turned off, offices were deserted, and the anchor's chair sat empty.News editor Levan Pitsadze defended the ban as necessary to prevent the country from sliding into chaos. He said the station's news programs would be back on the air as soon as the moratorium is lifted.Some of his colleagues disagreed.
[[["They created an information vacuum so that the population would not receive any information,"]]] said cameraman Kakha Sanodze.Imedi's office remained cordoned off by police; an Associated Press reporter and photographer were prevented from approaching the building on Saturday.
As in the days of Noah....
