KavkazCenter - Georgia TV fights satellite 'censorship' battle in Paris court

Georgia TV fights satellite 'censorship' battle in Paris court

The battle between a Georgian TV station and a satellite operator heated up Wednesday as the channel headed to a court here vowing to present proof that Russian pressure blocked its broadcasts to the Caucasus.

"I have proof that it is the content that presents a problem for them," said Henri D'Armagnac, who represents the Russian-language First Caucasian channel that seeks to present an alternative to Moscow's near-monopoly of TV news. The state-funded channel is taking Paris-based Eutelsat to a commercial court here on Thursday, accusing it of breaching a contract it allegedly signed to begin broadcasting on Feb. 1.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Tuesday accused the satellite operator of setting a "dangerous precedent of international political censorship" by taking the channel off the air. He urged the French government, which through a state investment fund owns a quarter of Eutelsat, to intervene and accused state-controlled Russian gas giant Gazprom of trying to monopolize the international airwaves.

First Caucasian was launched amid deep tensions between Georgia and Russia, who fought a brief war in 2008 over the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia. The channel's availability in the Caucasus was always likely to infuriate Moscow, which has fought two wars against Chechen separatists and is facing an Islamic insurgency in the region.

First Caucasian lawyer D'Armagnac told AFP he hoped to convince the court to issue a provisional order to force Eutelsat to resume transmitting the channel from its satellites. The channel was broadcast on a test basis for a week last month and is continuing to emit its programs on the Internet.

Eutelsat, which has categorically denied that Russia tried to exert pressure on it, said Wednesday it was perplexed by the legal proceedings. "There is no contract in place," said the firm's deputy CEO, Jean-Paul Brillaud. The satellite operator said it had sent a contract to First Caucasian but was still waiting for the channel to sign it.

Department of Monitoring,

Kavkaz Center