Bidzina Baratashvili, managing director of Imedi TV, said he was not aware about the authorities’ readiness to resume TV station’s broadcast in early December.

After holding talks with the Georgian leadership in Tbilisi on November 23, Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, said that there was a readiness within the Georgian authorities to let Imedi TV back on air at the beginning of December.

“Mr. Haraszti met at first with us and then with the authorities and it is very good if Mr. Haraszti made such conclusions after the meeting with the authorities,” Baratashvili told Civil.Ge. “Unfortunately there have not been so far any direct contacts between us [Imedi management] and the authorities. So it is very hard for me to speak about their intentions.”

“Another issue is that we do not know the current condition of equipment in the Imedi TV. We are not allowed inside the premises so we do not know when it will be able, from the technical point of view, to resume broadcast.”

Imedi TV management and journalists have claimed that the equipment was destroyed during the police raid on the TV station on November 7, when it was shut down. Authorities have denied these allegations.