Communications Commission member Ivane Makharadze met the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Teresa Ribeiro, informing her about the current media environment in Georgia and the country’s achievements in the field of media freedom. The parties also discussed future cooperation plans during the meeting.

Ivane Makharadze stated during the meeting that media freedom and pluralism are fully protected in Georgia.  He also highlighted the challenges still faced by the media today. These challenges had been identified by the Communications Commission during the pre-election media monitoring process in 2020 and 2021.

“Based on the media monitoring results, Georgia has a pluralistic and diverse media environment, parts of which are polarised, while others are attempting to spread disinformation, manipulate and deceive viewers. The use of hate speech was a significant problem in relation to certain broadcasters. It is worth noting that similar challenges were identified by the media monitoring conducted by OSCE/ODIHR. We believe that these challenges must be tackled through joint efforts,” Ivane Makharadze stated during the meeting.