A quarter of Formula TV's shares are now legally owned by the company's employees, the company's management announced at a meeting with partner organizations and employees.
50% of the shares previously owned by David Kezerashvili, the company's founder, have been transferred to a new non-profit legal entity, Freedom Formula, set up by the TV's employees for a symbolic price of 1 GEL.
Formula TV talk-show host and journalist Nino Zhizhilashvili was elected chair of the organization’s board.
The move is intended to strengthen legal guarantees for the editorial independence of the staff.
Freedom Formula's mission includes protecting freedom of speech, supporting critical media and journalists, promoting editorial independence, strengthening Georgia's westward course and European values in the media as well as monitoring high media standards and ethics.
The non-profit group is legally independent from Formula LLC, other legal entities, state, local and self-governing bodies, other business/non-business entities, political parties and public organizations.
Formula TV CEO Zuka Gumbaridze said a contract has been signed with a US partner with the aim of "protecting the interests of critical media in the country as a whole" and "informing relevant audiences in the US about the challenges and problems of critical media in Georgia".
"We hired this organization to protect the interests of all critical media in Georgia, so that all relevant actors in Washington, be it in the Senate, Congress or the executive branch, would know what is going on in the Georgian media and what the challenges are," Gumbaridze said, also stressing that the US is Georgia's strategic partner.
Mr Gumbaridze emphasized informing Washington interlocutors about the "illegal and politically motivated" arrest of Nika Gvaramia as one of the priorities for the outreach in Washington.
"Freedom Formula is run by a board with a rotating chair. The shares are owned by Formula employees. We have no right to transfer our shares to anyone or to do anything with them. Those who work at Formula own these shares permanently. This is the first precedent where a team from a commercial TV station has the opportunity to participate and oversee the processes to such an extent," Ms Zhizhilashvili added.
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