Irakli Kobakhidze: The history of Georgian TV and radio broadcasting began in the public broadcaster, therefore, the public broadcaster has and will always have a special role for our country

The Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze, together with the Speaker of the Parliament Shalva Papuashvili and the Mayor of Tbilisi Kakha Kaladze, attended the opening ceremony of the new building of the Public Broadcaster. The mentioned information is disseminated by the government administration.

According to the published information, General Director of Public Broadcaster Tinatin Berdzenishvili and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Public Broadcaster Vasil Maglaferidze visited the Prime Minister of the new television building.

Irakli Kobakhidze congratulated the employees of the television station on the opening of the new building and drew attention to the "special workload" of the public broadcaster.

"The building is outstanding in terms of content and very efficient with the entire infrastructure. I am glad that from today Public Broadcasters will work in a completely different environment, in a new building, in new studios and with fully updated equipment, which is very important for every journalist. I want to congratulate them especially on today's day", said the Prime Minister.

The head of the government spoke about the situation in terms of media freedom in the past years and noted that the previous government appropriated the public broadcaster along with private broadcasters, but today the situation is different.

"Today, the Public Broadcaster enjoys the basic right of media freedom guaranteed by the Constitution of Georgia in exactly the same way as private broadcasters enjoy. Moreover, in the Constitution of Georgia in 2017, Article 17 specifically reflected the record about the Public Broadcaster, and Georgia is one of the rare cases where the institutional status of the Public Broadcaster is guaranteed by the Constitution. In addition, the constitution ensures the independence of the public broadcaster from state agencies and freedom from political and substantial commercial influence. This is one of the subtle notes that can be found in various constitutions regarding the public broadcaster. This is the current attitude towards the media in general, towards the public broadcaster, and this building, I think, is another manifestation of this attitude. The history of Georgian TV and radio broadcasting began in the public broadcaster, therefore the public broadcaster today has and will always have a special role for our country. We are aware of the government's responsibility to constantly take care of the public broadcaster, its independence, and its continuous development. On behalf of the Government of Georgia, I can give you a promise that this care will definitely continue in the future, so that the television with almost a century of history can provide the public with objective information about the current events in the country. Once again, I want to congratulate you on the opening of the new building. I especially want to congratulate the journalists, the people who created the history of the Public Broadcaster for decades, and I want to wish you great success in your professional activities," said the Prime Minister.