The Communications Commission has issued a written caution to TV Pirveli and Formula for unlawfully broadcasting political advertising outside the election period and fined Mtavari Arkhi 1% of its annual revenues for the same offence. The case concerns the video clip unlawfully aired by the broadcasters on 23 and 24 June. A complaint regarding the advert was submitted to the Commission by the political union Georgian Dream.

To determine the status of the advert, the Commission focussed on the content, context and purpose of the video clip in line with the current Georgian legislation, legal practice and European practice. Having studied the video, the Commission determined that the purpose of the broadcast was to promote the demo planned for 24 June and ensure maximum attendance, as well as to present the political union Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia and its leaders in a negative context. Thus, the advert in question was aimed at an unspecified aaudience and displayed content about political figures with the purpose of shaping negative opinion towards a specific political party and affecting its electoral performance. It should also be noted that the demo itself was political in nature. The Commission therefore ruled that the controversial video clip constituted political advertising.

The Georgian legislation strictly regulates the issue of broadcasting political advertising. According to the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting, the broadcaster must ensure the compliance of advertising with the Georgian legislation and prevent the broadcasting of inappropriate advertising. Placement of political/pre-election advertising is restricted outside the pre-election period. Broadcasters are prohibited from airing political/pre-election advertising until 50 days before the vote. More specifically, the placement of ads must start 50 days before the vote and finish 8 hours before the vote. In case of a second round of voting, the placement of ads must start on the Monday following the announcement of the second round and finish 8 hours before the vote. Since the dates of 23 and 24 June 2022 fell outside the pre-election campaign period, broadcasters were prohibited from airing political advertising. Therefore, the Commission decided to penalise the broadcasters for unlawfully airing political/pre-election advertising outside the pre-election period. Since TV Pirveli and Formula had not committed a similar offence during the previous year and did not have any penalties imposed on them, the Commission issued both broadcasters with a written caution. Mtavari Arkhi had previously been deemed to have committed similar offences on 4 occasions in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Additionally, the broadcaster had already been fined for a similar offence during the previous year. Therefore, the Communications Commission imposed a fine of 1% of the broadcaster’s annual revenues (GEL 118,688.67) in accordance with the legislation.