Mtavari Arkhi collected the highest amount of revenue (GEL 4,270,075) from paid pre-election advertising, as shown by the Communication Commission’s analysis of free and paid political advertising during the 2020 Georgian parliamentary elections. The average cost per minute of placing paid political advertising on Mtavari Arkhi was GEL 5,583. Mtavari Arkhi allocated 66.2% of its paid political advertising time to the United National Movement, which accounted for 62.9% of the...

The Communication Commission’s analysis of free and paid political advertising during the 2020 Georgian parliamentary elections showed that broadcasters allocated almost 30,000 minutes in combined air time to free political advertising. In proportion to the cost of paid advertising during the same period of time, the total value of the aforementioned free adverts was approximately GEL 62.5 million. As for paid political advertising, information supplied by the broadcasters showed that...

According to Article 50.1 of the Election Code of Georgia, a broadcast license holder, an authorised over-the-air broadcaster, the Public Broadcaster and Adjara TV and Radio of the Public Broadcaster must, if airtime is allotted for pre-election campaigning and political advertising, publicly announce and weekly submit to the GNCC the following information: from and until what date and at what intervals the airtime is allotted, its duration and schedule of the allotted airtime during one...

Certain sections of the non-governmental sector are categorising the use of obscenity and hate speech on air as freedom of expression. Moreover, they claim that regulating the use of coarse language and obscenity will threaten freedom of expression in the country. To this end, they are offering false interpretations of the Georgian legislation and the practices of the Constitutional Court, thereby misleading the public. We wish to make it clear that by issuing the statement on 7 December, the...

The Communications Commission is calling on broadcasters to refrain from airing programmes that abuse a person’s dignity and their fundamental rights, or contain obscenity. Qualitative media monitoring carried out by the Commission for the pre-election period of the 2020 Georgian parliamentary elections, covering the activities of 6 national broadcasters between 1 September and 31 October 2020, found that within the pluralistic and diverse pre-election media environment, some sections of...

Media monitoring carried out by the Communications Commission during the pre-election period found that 7 broadcasters violated the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting by not holding pre-election debates on air. Broadcasters have a duty to offer viewers debates between electoral subjects in order to enable them to make informed choices. The following broadcasters violated Article 55.1 of the Law on Broadcasting: Teleimedi, Studio Maestro, PosTV, Television and Radio Company ATV-12, Tanamgzavri TV,...

The Communications Commission has upheld complaints made by member of the public and issued the broadcasting company Rustavi 2 and GDS TV with fines of GEL 2500 each for violating the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting. The case concerns the broadcasting of motion pictures and television shows that are unsuitable for minors. Specifically, the broadcasters were found to have breached the regulations regarding the scheduling and labelling of programmes that are unsuitable for minors. Such offences...

The Communications Commission has issued Mtavari Arkhi with a fine of GEL 58,061.76 for repeat violation of the legislative requirements regarding the placement of pre-election/political advertising. In accordance with the Georgian legislation, pre-election adverts can be aired by the broadcasters from the next Monday of the scheduling day of the second round of voting. Therefore, Mtavari Arkhi only had the right to broadcast political adverts from Monday, 16 November. It is important to note...

The Communications Commission has published ComCom Digest for the month of November, which provides an overview of the activities and important decisions taken by the Commission over the past month. What violations were identified during the pre-election media monitoring process, which broadcasters were issued with a protocol for violating the legislation, and what were the television advertising figures and trends in the third quarter? Detailed information on these and other issues...