Georgia's attempt to create a Russian-language news channel has got off to an inauspicious start. Restricted by a tight budget and limited resources, and accused by Russia of peddling propaganda, First Caucasian has now lost its only broadcast partner, as Tom Esslemont reports from Tbilisi.
The aim was to create Georgia's only Russian-language television channel, broadcast by satellite to the whole Caucasus region - a region which includes the troubled republics of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia.
The brainchild of President Mikhail Saakashvili's administration, it would lock horns with Russia in a televisual propaganda war.
To win the war meant attracting the audience whose only other alternative was Russia's own state media and local channels; drawing in the people who live in Georgia's breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Russia has recognised as independent states.
What could be simpler?
In November, the Georgian government publicly announced the project. By mid-January, the channel was being streamed on the internet and broadcast via satellite.
But at the end of last week, its satellite broadcasts mysteriously stopped.
No comments:
Post a Comment