Thousands rally in Georgia to back embattled pro-opposition broadcaster

Thousands of people rallied in Georgia on Thursday against the government's alleged attempts to silence the country's most popular television channel, raising tensions in the Western-backed nation.

Protesters gathered outside the offices of the Rustavi 2 TV which has been locked in a bitter power struggle with the government which critics say is aimed at stifling free media in the ex-Soviet state.

Some demonstrators held up placards reading "Hands off Rustavi 2 TV" and "Rustavi 2 belongs to people", an AFP correspondent said.

In an emergency televised address to the nation, President Giorgi Margvelashvili said the recent developments around the channel "have threatened constitutional order and created preconditions for social confrontation."

Rustavi 2 has been locked in an ongoing ownership tussle since August that has rocked the tiny Caucasus country and sparked fears in the West that the ruling Georgian Dream coalition could be looking to clamp down on independent media.

Over the summer, a court froze the broadcaster's assets after a businessman close to the coalition filed a lawsuit to reclaim control.

Government critics and the channel's owners have denounced the pressure as part of a government-orchestrated campaign aimed at stifling media in the run-up to next year's parliamentary elections.

- 'Tantamount to closure' -

"The government has decided to hand Rustavi 2 ownership over to a man under its control and that will amount to a closure of the country's most influential TV channel," Rustavi 2's deputy director Zaal Udumashvili told AFP.

"That will put an end to media pluralism in Georgia and threaten the very existence of Georgian democracy."

On Wednesday, the channel's director Nika Gvaramia said a government middleman had threatened to release secretly-recorded videos showing what he described as his "private life" in an attempt to force him to resign.

The office of Georgia's prosecutor general has launched a probe into his claims.

Local rights groups and Western diplomats have denounced alleged government interference in the legal battle, a claim which the authorities have flatly rejected.

"There are a number of circumstances which cause serious suspicion about government's influence on the ongoing process" and call into question any dissent or critical opinions in the media, said a statement released by around a dozen civil society and media organisations.

Founded in 1994, Rustavi 2 TV is Georgia?s biggest and most popular television station.

It provided a platform for opposition forces during the 2003 peaceful popular protests dubbed the Rose Revolution that ousted Eduard Shevardnadze from power.

Since then, Rustavi 2 has retained its influence and shaped public opinion, but has often been criticised for its partisan coverage in favour of former president Mikheil Saakashvili?s United National Movement party.

Independent media outlets in Georgia have often had fraught relations with those in power since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 as often fiercely-partisan journalists have struggled to throw off political interference in their work.