Ajara TV Announces Contest for New Director

The Ajara Public Broadcaster has announced a contest for a new Director after the board dismissed the previous one on April 19.

Candidates are able to submit their applications until May 24. The new director will be selected by June 4, through interview.

The director will take the post for three years.

Former director Natia Kapanadze stressed that the board did not study the documents properly and made a hasty decision when dismissing her. She is going to appeal the decision and start a legal dispute.

A complaint requesting Kapanadze’s impeachment was lodged with the board of advisors on April 10 by two board members, Giga Chkhartishvili and Irakli Dartsmelidze. They pointed to Kapanadze’s “disrespect of and miscommunication with the advisory board, as well as at financial mismanagement of the company.”

Later, four out of five members of Ajara Public Broadcaster supported the impeachment of the Director.

The decision of the board was slammed by the NGOs who released a statement expressing concern regarding the recent developments in the media company.

The Public Defender noted the case may be politically motivated and media experts claim the recent developments might be linked to the upcoming 2020 parliamentary elections.

Kapanadze was elected to the post in October 2016, and her three-year term was to expire in October 2019.

In 2018, the Tolerance Center of the Public Defender’s Office awarded Natia Kapanadze an award of tolerance, saying the television broadcasted and balanced well the issues of ethnic and religious minorities and promoted diversity.

During Kapanadze’s leadership, Ajara TV was also positively assessed in the 2018 report of the Human Rights Watch Report and this year, OSCE/ODIHR final report mentioned that Ajara TV is the only broadcaster in the country that offered the audience a neutral comparison of the Presidential candidates in autumn 2018.

By Thea Morrison

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Ajara TV Director Dismissed by Board