Georgia’s political airwaves battle just took a new twist. The announced creation of a new TV station by pro-west Oligarch, Kezerashvili, is an opportunity Georgia’s civil society must seize to push for electoral reform.

The latest news on this front comes from a really interesting article by Democracy Digest.

A new front has been opened in Georgia’s ‘Battle of the political airwaves’ with the announcement that a new channel, Formula, will be broadcast from October. One of the financiers is oligarch Davit Kezerashvili, who served as defence minister during the short war with Russia in 2008 when Georgia was still ruled by the Mikheil Saakashvili administration, BNE Intellinews reports:

With main opposition TV channel Rustavi 2 in the middle of competing claims for legal ownership and possibly set to slip into pro-government hands, and with the owner of the country’s other major channel, TV Pirveli, under investigation for alleged complicity in money laundering 11 years ago—in connection with the also accused co-founders of TBC Bank—there is no doubt that Georgia’s media market is now very visibly subject to a struggle for influence in advance of the 2020 general election.

The likes of Kezerashvili are active in trying to persuade Georgia’s younger generations to pursue a highly pro-West orientation for their country, with the goal of Nato membership, while the ruling Georgian Dream government takes a more balanced stance, stressing the realistic need to maintain good relations with Moscow.

Clock here for full story.