You can't go there

The Georgian authorities are unhappy that the Russian television channels REN-TV, NTV, TV-Center, Rossiya and Kultura are broadcasting in the “occupied territories” - Abkhazia and South Ossetia - without a license. For “illegal broadcasting,” the Georgian National Communications Commission is going to recover up to $300,000 from Russian television companies through international courts, Kommersant writes. At the same time, commission employees told the newspaper that this “is not at all as unrealistic as it seems to some in Moscow”: they say, “some of those fined” have already admitted to the fact of illegal broadcasting, although they claim that they have nothing to do with it. Kommersant quotes the head of the press service of REN-TV, Anton Nazarov, who confirmed that if broadcasting actually occurs on the territory of the republics, it is carried out illegally. However, the company considers the fine to be unfounded and asks Georgia to provide information about companies illegally rebroadcasting the REN-TV signal, “so that we redirect the imposed fine to these companies, and also recover from them the damage caused to the REN TV channel by illegal broadcasting.” NTV stated that broadcasting on the territory of “sovereign Abkhazia and South Ossetia” fully complies with Russian laws, “so attempts to regulate this activity by any bodies of a foreign state only cause bewilderment.” VGTRK, which owns Rossiya and Kultura, did not comment on the statement of the Georgian commission. The newspaper cites the opinion of Georgian experts who believe that the commission’s decision is intended solely for domestic consumption, since the authorities understand that they will not receive a fine from Russian companies. Since 1999, the rebroadcast of Russian channels in Georgia has ceased, but before the war in South Ossetia, local cable networks mostly offered consumers packages that included almost all Russian channels. During the war, the heads of the largest networks were invited to the Georgian Security Council and asked to stop broadcasting hostile propaganda, and although no one introduced an official ban on broadcasting, they obeyed. But Georgian citizens can still watch Russian TV channels via satellite.