Trialeti TV, a regional channel based in Gori in eastern Georgia’s Shida Kartli region, said its satellite broadcasting was halted as a result of what it called “artificially created [financial] crisis resulting from systematic pressure by the authorities,” citing the repeated freezing of its bank accounts by the Revenue Service.
According to the channel’s February 2 statement, the Revenue Service, under the Ministry of Finance, levied its bank accounts three times over the past six months to enforce debt collection, seized funds, then lifted and reinstated the restrictions in what it called “not solely for tax enforcement purposes, but to economically destabilize independent media.”
In June 2025, the channel reported that its bank account was levied by authorities to enforce the collection of debts it said dated back 10 to 15 years. The broadcaster, already in financial crisis, warned the move would prevent it from paying taxes or salaries, “ultimately leading to the shutdown of both its TV and radio services.”
Trialeti TV, which has operated since 1990, argued that media organizations affiliated with the authorities owe “tens of millions of lari” in tax debt but face no similar enforcement measures, while its own tax debt, it said, is “significantly smaller,” yet the authorities applied the “harshest form” of enforcement, “resulting in the paralysis of its operations.”
“The state refused to use the tax settlement mechanism provided by law for Trialeti, while the same authorities have concluded such agreements with more than ten thousand organizations over the years, writing off amounts exceeding 5 billion lari.”
The channel further said it had informed the disputed Parliament, Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, and Georgian Dream’s honorary chairman, Bidzina Ivanishvili, about what it described as the authorities’ “violations” of their power, but added that no response had followed.
“No one is investigating whether the law was broken. No one is interested in whether human rights were violated. Everyone is silently waiting for independent media to be stifled!” the statement said.
In December, Transparency International-Georgia, a local corruption watchdog, reported that “17 regional broadcasters” halted operations in 2025 due to financial difficulties.
Mtavari TV, one of the country’s main opposition-leaning broadcasters, went off air in 2025 amid financial problems and internal disputes, and now operates only on social media. Two other major critical broadcasters, Formula TV and TV Pirveli, are also facing financial difficulties and the “risk of closure.”
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