Crazy days

The last three days were very crazy....
I feel really tired, running out of energy...
As I was working from dawn to dusk and that is why I was unable to post smth...
Originally I was planning to be now on the way to Rustavi, but as usually I was late (forgot that today is Sunday). So, I am staying in the office.. :))

November 15

The whole day I felt crappy...

I was driving to Tbilisi in a mini-bus, and two things really disappointed me - young men, packed into the Soviet truck, who were going to attend 18 days military preparation (in Georgia there is a law on Compulsary Army Reserve Service which obliges all young men from 18 till 40 to undergo a military training for 18 days every two years), which is a sign of the militarization of the country (however, friend of mine who was so nationalistic and militaristic in his views drastically changed his mind after holding in his arms real weapons, which push you to kill someone); after that I saw a crashed mini-bus. That was a mini bus, going probably from Tbilisi to Rustavi.... I could be there...

My first news I read made me really upset...


"Tbilisi City Court has suspended Imedi TV?s broadcast license citing that the television stations? news coverage of the November 7 unrests in Tbilisi was inciting to overthrow of the government. The court's ruling has also frozen the TV stations assets"


My initial reaction: Georgian democracy is under threat!!


If we have only GPB (state controled telivision), Rustavi 2 TV and closed IMEDI TV, the upcoming elections will not be free and fair! Meanwhile, Mathew Bryza kept pushing for restoration of all media broadcasts, including of Imedi and Kavkasia. Speaking at a news conference in Tbilisi on November 14 – the second one in two subsequent days – Bryza said: “First of all we need to have a decision out there to get Imedi back on air and that’s what we are working very hard right now. It seems that Georgian authorities turned a deaf ear...Maybe the procedure of elections will be fair, but pre-election will not be free and fair, if Georgian authorities will limit freedom of speech and suspend licenses for the Independent mass media, especially TV. We all know that the main source of information for Georgian population is TV, not Internet or press (only small percentage of the population can afford to buy printed press, and even less have access to the Internet). The Court had acted upon the request of the General Prosecutor’s Office, which ordered that Imedi's “owner be prevented from using and managing” the station's broadcast license, but it is known that the government and personally president and hid team stand behind the Prosecutor General. If in Latvia Prosecutor General can say NO to the President or Prime Minister, in Georgia it is out of reality.

That day Georgian Parliament also endorsed with its first hearing draft amendments to the election code. I really hail all the amendments proposed. The only exception is an abolishment of a turnout of voters – “another proposed amendment to the election code involves the abolition of a 33.33% quorum in second-round presidential elections. There is no quorum required for the first round.” : /