A member of the public broadcaster’s board of trustees, Mikheil Chiaureli, has joined a protest of three of his former colleagues and quit the board.

On April 23 three members of the board, Irma Sokhadze; Marina Vekua and Giorgi Anchabadze said they were quitting the nine-seat board in protest over the public TV’s poor coverage of ongoing protests.

Now five members remain in the board. According to the board’s regulations it can still be convened and take decisions as majority of members’ presence is required to hold a session. Decisions are made by majority of members present at a session.

A contest should be announced to fill the four vacant seats. The President has then to select twelve nominees from applicants and submit them to the Parliament, which has to chose and approve one nominee for each vacant seat.

The board of trustees has little say in the broadcaster’s editorial policy. It’s function is limited in this regard with only setting “the broadcaster’s programming priorities” in general.