French ambassador welcomes pardoning of TV head for Georgia’s “democracy, media freedom, EU integration”

Sheraz Gasri, the French ambassador to Georgia, on Friday welcomed the Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili’s decision to on Thursday pardon the domestic Mtavari TV channel head Nika Gvaramia, saying the move was expected to benefit democracy, media freedom and the country’s European aspirations. 

Zourabichvili’s move came following the Supreme Court’s decision on June 19 not to accept Gvaramia’s lawsuit, and the European Commission’s oral report earlier this week on Georgia’s implementation of 12 priorities outlined by the European Union last year for granting Tbilisi its membership candidate status, which said Georgia had shown “no progress” on media pluralism.  Gvaramia was convicted and sentenced to three years and six months in prison last year for abuse of power while at the helm of Rustavi 2 channel in 2015 and 2019.