On January 25th the Russian-language satellite news channel of the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB), First Caucasus News, was relaunched after being off air for one year. During a two-week period in January 2010 the channel had been operated by Eutelsat Communications (France), but was terminated at the end of a trial period. Eutelsat claimed that it had halted transmission because the channel was a pilot project and that a contract with Georgia had not been signed. In response, the Georgian authorities accused Eutelsat of bowing to Russian pressure, given that the company had a lucrative contract with Intersputnik, a Russian firm that provides broadcasts for a media unit of the Russian state-owned energy company, Gazprom (March 2010, The political scene). The GPB had attempted to sue the satellite operator for breach of contract, but the court, in Paris, ruled in favour of Eutelsat in July 2010. In the same month GPB handed over the channel's management rights to a private company called Key One, which was co-founded by a veteran BBC correspondent, Robert Parsons, and the head of the First Caucasus News newsroom, Ekaterina Kotrikadze. Responding to allegations by critics in Russia and Georgia that the channel may become a mouthpiece for the Georgian authorities, Mr Parsons has insisted that the new channel would not use propaganda.