Linguapax
Georgia Offers Russian-Language Alternative To Kremlin TV
Russian-speakers in the Caucasus, Europe, Russia, and beyond now have a new place to turn for news. The Georgia-based Kanal PIK ("Pervy Informatsionny Kavkazsky," or First Caucasus News) has made its television debut. For six hours a night, the channel will broadcast news, documentaries, and cultural programs about the Caucasus and the wider world to audiences who until now have had only Kremlin-dominated stations to turn to for their Russian-language news.
Kanal PIK director Robert Parsons, a former BBC Moscow correspondent and former director of RFE/RL's Georgian Service, says the station seeks to fill an information gap when it comes to news about the North and South Caucasus. "By and large, particularly if you talk about Russian television, the coverage of Georgia is almost uniformly negative. And that's certainly one of the things that we hope to correct because it distorts the image of this country," Parsons says.
"We're not targeting Russia or the Russian government. We're not seeking to pick battles with anybody. What we see our aim as being is to satisfy a thirst that people have for honest information."