On 5-6 July 2002, in Tbilisi, within the joint project of the European Commission and the European Council, a working meeting related to broadcasting regulation and its future perspectives was held. The meeting was organized by the European Council and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. The aim of this meeting was to encourage the fulfillment of obligations of Georgia, as a member country of the European Council. The meeting demonstrated the necessity to establish a new legislation in the field of broadcasting in Georgia, which would be in conformity with the international standards related to the freedom of media.    

The Georgian National Communications Commission had already made first steps to achieve this goal. The Commission, with the participation of local and foreigner experts and TV and radio broadcasters, has elaborated the Georgian law on changes and amendments in the Georgian law “on post and communications”. The Parliament of Georgia approved this law in May 2002. According to paragraph 12, Article 55 of this law, the Parliament of Georgia had to issue a new law on broadcasting before June 2003.

In order to fulfill the recommendations and conclusions received on the working meeting related to broadcasting regulation and its future perspectives, a working group has been established. The working group consisted of representatives of the Parliament of Georgia, Ministry of Justice of Georgia, Georgian National Communications Commission, state and private broadcasting sector, non-governmental organizations, as well as local and foreigner experts. A draft law on broadcasting has been elaborated, which was sent to the European Council for consideration. The experts of the European Council, Caroline Morrison and Sandra Hrvatin-Bashik considered the draft law elaborated by the working group and sent us commentaries on 12th March 2003. On 14th March 2003, a meeting was held in the Commission, with the participation of the working group and experts of the European Council. The draft law has been considered once again on this meeting.

The elaboration of draft law on broadcasting has been prolonged. In February 2004, Mario Otimer, consultant of media division program of the European Council visited Georgia. A meeting was held in the Commission. Decision on sending the last version of the draft law to the European Council before 15th March 2004 for consideration was taken on this meeting, as well as decision on holding a working meeting in May of the same year, where the elaboration of last version of the draft law would be possible on the basis of recommendations of experts of the European Council. On 15th March 2004, the draft law was sent to the European Council and on 14th May, Caroline Morrison, the expert of the European Council, sent us commentaries. On 24th May, the working meeting was held in the Commission with the participation of the experts of the European Council and members of the group working on the draft law on broadcasting. The last version of the draft law was submitted to the President of Georgia in August 2004, for legislative initiative. The law was enforced on 18th January 2005.