With the coming to power of Mikhail Saakashvili, the government took on the news agenda. Two TV stations and several newspapers closed down, while other channels were taken over by government-friendly private business groups. Journalists increasingly resorted to self-censorship. Media/government relations worsened in the following years, with the 2007 closure of the critical Imedi TV station among political protests, as well as the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. In 2009 press freedom was among the top political issues in Georgia, with a battle between government and opposition for control over the public service broadcaster and the denunciation of pro-governmental media outlets, which also included various forms of intimidation of journalists (e.g. pickets and "corridors of shame"). Saakashvili later pledged to move toward a “more open and unbiased” media landscape and to upheld the independence of the public service broadcaster.