PARIS, Feb 5, 2010 (AFP) - France on Friday implicitly backed a Georgian television channel in its dispute with a European satellite operator, saying a deal should be reached to allow it to return to air.
    The Perviy Kavkazky (First Caucasian) channel began broadcasting Russian-language programmes across Georgia and the Russian Caucasus last month, but the Eutelsat operator pulled it off the air just a few weeks later.
    The channel went to court in Paris this week, accusing Eutelsat of bowing to pressure from Moscow. Eutelsat says its dispute with the channel is purely commercial.
    Foreign minister spokesman Bernard Valero noted that the matter was before the courts, but added: "We want Eutelsat and Georgia to find common ground so that this project can develop."
    "Our principled position is that a solution should be found.. that will not affect plurality and freedom of information," he said.
    The French state owns 25 percent of Eutelsat.
    Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has accused the satellite operator of setting a "dangerous precedent of international political censorship" by taking the channel off the air.
    A Paris commercial court is to render a decision in the case on Monday.
    Run by Georgia's state broadcaster, Perviy Kavkazky markets itself as a news channel that tells the "truth" about events in the Caucasus, a turbulent region that has seen several wars over the past decade.
    The channel's launch came amid tensions between Georgia and Russia, which fought a war in 2008 over the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.