11 May: The Russian-language Alaniya radio station, which is part of a TV company with the same name, started to broadcast in Georgia on 10 May, the Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations reports.
The Alaniya TV and Radio Company occupies a special place on the list of the Georgian mass media now and is a propaganda resource designed to persuade residents of South Ossetia to return to the bosom of the Georgian state.
Despite attempts of the unrecognized South Ossetian government to prevent Alaniya TV broadcasts to the territories under their control, it has been broadcasting quite successfully, first of all, owing to the lack of frontal political propaganda. The idea of unity between Georgia and South Ossetia is presented in a soft and unobtrusive way - similar to modern Hollywood films and Russian pop music, Tengiz Ablotiya, expert with the Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations, said. Alaniya Radio will broadcast approximately in the same style.
Earlier Kavkazskiy Uzel quoted political expert Yuriy Pukhayev from South Ossetia as saying that the Georgian special services were behind Alaniya TV broadcasts to South Ossetia from Georgia. In order to promote this channel, Georgia earlier spread a false report alleging that South Ossetia “jammed” its broadcasts.
(Source: Kavkaz.memo.ru website, Moscow, in Russian 11 May 07 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
