The TV company “Formula” will start broadcasting in October in Georgia, reported georgiatoday.
The company will be set up by the Formula Creative Group. One of the major investors in the company is the former Defense Minister of Georgia Davit Kezerashvili. Kezerashvili announced the forming of the company two weeks ago via Facebook post.
“The recent developments have encouraged me to take an important decision about my involvement in the Georgian public life. A new civil society is being born before our eyes – a new generation expresses readiness to play an active role in the development of our country. It raises hope that Georgia’s path towards the West will be protected not only by some parties or political groups but by society as a whole and a new generation. At the same time, I find it extremely dangerous that the main media resources are fully concentrated in the hands of the ruling circle. This reality brings us back to the vicious circle we have experienced for decades. I believe that the fight against Russia’s propaganda needs to be a constant activity and the choice of the Georgian people to be oriented towards the west needs to be protected. That is why I have decided to set up a new television platform together with our friends in order to ensure this protection. A platform will support not any particular party, group, or elite circle – but the whole civil society, the voice of freedom and progress in our country,” read his post.
Kezerashvili is a founding member of the United National Movement and a close personal ally of the former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. He worked in the Finance Ministry from 2004 until 2006, including a role as chair of the financial police force. He was appointed as Georgian Defense Minister in 2006. He was dismissed from this post in 2008 after the defeat in the South Ossetia War. In 2013 multiple criminal charges, including corruption, were brought against Kezerashvili by the new government of Georgia. He was detained in Aix-en-Provence, France, with a pending hearing on extradition to Georgia. He was released under electronic monitoring in 2014, but the French court that handled his case refused to extradite him to Georgia under the argument that the call for extradition was politically motivated.
