Representatives of ethnic minorities in Georgia and Chechen Diaspora in Canada announced solidarity with the Georgian Russian-language TV PIK. “We appeal to the leadership and Parliament with a request not to deprive hundreds of thousands of viewers their favorite channel,” – said in a statement of the Chechen diaspora in Canada.
“We, forced to leave our homeland, perceived PIK as the only source of TV freedom, – said the representative of the Chechen diaspora in Canada. – It is from PIK’s news and feature programs that we learned about what was happening on our homeland. Since the channel said what others were silent about! During the most difficult times, when speaking the truth about Russia’s imperial policy could be deadly dangerous, journalists of PIK boldly informed the world about the situation in the entire Caucasus region.”
The existence of a television “PIK” is necessary – the view was accepted by all participants in the debate on the topic “Is the existence of PIK necessary?” on October 23. Discussions involved staff from the TV company, representatives of national minorities in Georgia and political scientists.
According to the head of the Armenian community of Georgia Genady Muradyan, in Georgia there are Russian-speaking regions, for which the main source of information was just the channel PIK. “Today, I went to an Armenian school, theater, and all talked about it – maybe, they say, this channel will recover somehow,” – said Mouradyan, adding that the channel was a source objective information on Georgia and it must be preserved.
Chairman of the Foundation for Civil Integration Zaur Khalilov said that even though the information spread by PIK probably needed some polishing, but the cultural program were certainly important, and played a significant role in bringing people in the region together. According to Khalilov, at this stage, no other channel could take that niche.
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“The language of communication for the minorities in the region is Russian, so I think the creation of products in this language will allow us to carry out the state policy in the regions”, – said political analyst Mamuka Areshidze from the ruling coalition “Georgian Dream”. According to Areshidze, PIK “shaped” information policy in the Caucasus and a large diaspora in the region depended on that information and was integrated into the common information space of the channel.
Yesterday, deputy director of the channel and the head of news, Ekaterine Kotrikadze, also visited the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi in search of support.
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