TBILISI, DFWatch — It is still unknown what will happen to a Russian language TV channel based in Georgia.

PIK TV is one of the channels run by the Georgian Public Broadcaster.

Since October 12, PIK has been had reduced programming, broadcasting old material and movies, which is limiting society’s access information about to ongoing events.

PIK’s chief information officer Ekaterine Kotrikadze thinks that the company has problems because of lack of finances. She said that PIK did not have any financial problems or debts.

PIK is financed by the government and Ekaterine Kotrikadze is interested in where their own money from the government has gone. She asked for help from non-governmental organizations and parliament.

Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) supports PIK. The organization thinks that the audit service should study the issue of GPB’s spending and PIK’s finances.

George Chanturia, general director of GPB expressed readiness to help the audit system to monitor GPB’s activities and finances.

“On 15 October, part of PIK’s employees arbitrarily protested against delayed wages and broadcast the silent news. Also, the TV company without authorization transmitted the TV signal to a satellite GPB has terminated its business relationship with. It may cause some unforeseen expenses. The right to transmit a signal is only GPB’s exclusively,” said George Chanturia.

As Ekaterine Kotrikadze says the decision about transmitting the signal was made by the heads of the TV company. Aleksandre Farulava, the head of PIK has so far not commented.

On October 20, GPB canceled the business agreements with PIK. The staff thinks that George Chanturia is restricting freedom of speech. They applied to the GPB board, asking it to express distrust in Chanturia. PIK’s journalists also made an appeal to parliament.

The meeting of GPB’s board was held on October 25. George Chanturia stated that the agreement with PIK is not suspended yet and negotiations can continue. The board decided to hold one more meeting and invite the heads of PIK to discuss current problems and the future broadcasting of PIK.

GYLA express readiness to participate in every discussion between the two sides.