Police walk by as they guard the television station Imedi in Tbilisi. Police walk by as they guard the television station Imedi in Tbilisi November 7, 2007 (REUTERS)
Interview with Lewis Robertson, the head of News Media Caucasus, Imedi’s parent company, November 14, 2007....We got a tip late Wednesday afternoon that this might happen. We had been warned this was possible and they might be coming to Imedi. Then about 10:40 I was in the office. I heard a lot of dogs barking which is very unusual. I looked out of the window from my office on the third floor and saw hundreds of riot police running towards the television station. I immediately went downstairs to the lobby. By the time I got there people had been forced on the floor. They took out a gun and put it to the head of Bidzina Baratashvili [General Director of Imedi Channel].
They told him that they would shoot him right there. One of our reporters who was nine months pregnant was forced to the floor with a gun pointed at her. They were pushing and shoving and there was a lot of fear. We were there for an hour or so and they ordered us to leave. We went outside. It was very cold night, raining. Everybody was told to go home. I was back in the station with General Director and our commercial director. We were inside and everybody outside was leaving. Another group of riot police came and started shooting teargas and rubber bullets. ....
They told him that they would shoot him right there. One of our reporters who was nine months pregnant was forced to the floor with a gun pointed at her. They were pushing and shoving and there was a lot of fear. We were there for an hour or so and they ordered us to leave. We went outside. It was very cold night, raining. Everybody was told to go home. I was back in the station with General Director and our commercial director. We were inside and everybody outside was leaving. Another group of riot police came and started shooting teargas and rubber bullets. ....
...One of our directors was hit with a club and had to go to hospital. Ten or so of our employees had to go to hospital because of the teargas. While we were inside the building we were asked to go inside with riot police. We went in one of the control rooms and took those pictures which are now out on the internet. Everything had been destroyed. This was about ten minutes to eleven. I guess 2 or 3 o clock in the morning we left and have not been back to the building since then. The building is cordoned. I was with a reporter from the Wall Street Journal there but nobody let him go into the building. Only the people who had left their cars were allowed to enter. When they got to their cars, they saw all the windows had been smashed and the radios and CD players player had been torn out. It is clear that the people who ere guarding the place did so....
January 5 elections are not going to be a free and fair elections from the stand of point of media coverage. There is no question about that. You have the first channel which is there every time the president goes somewhere. Rustavi will cover it as well. We would also cover the other candidates. ...
November 17, 2007
The Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) has suspended Imedi TV’s broadcast license for three months, citing the station's violation of the law on broadcasting. Meanwhile, Rustavi 2 TV aired on November 16 a documentary, which had all the appearances of officially sanctioned, anti-Imedi propaganda....
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