‘Media Rights’ release report on Communications Commission activities
Wednesday, September 1
Media Rights monitors the activities of the Communications Commission with the financial support of the Open Society Foundations. In the framework of the project, special attention is paid to the issues of legitimacy of the broadcasters' sanctioning, observance of the requirements of the law and transparency of the regulatory process.
The weekly report of August 20-27, provides brief information on the activities of the Communications Commission. At its public hearings on August 26, the Communications Commission (GNCC) discussed a total of 13 issues. Therefore, the following decisions were made in the field of broadcasting:
GNCC Draws Protocol on Administrative Violations Due to Violation of Election Legislation to 7 Broadcasters. The lawsuit has been filed against Public Broadcaster, Public Broadcaster Adjara TV and Radio, Imedi TV, TV Pirveli, Formula, Rustavi 2 and Studio Maestro for illegal coverage of public opinion polls.
Based on the protocols of the violations, the Communications Commission states that “as a result of the pre-election media monitoring, it was revealed that the mentioned broadcasters covered the public opinion poll published by the Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party on August 23 in violation of the law. In particular, the broadcasters violated the ‘Election Code of Georgia’, according to which the broadcaster is obliged to indicate the date of the poll, the poll method, the exact wording of the poll questions and the scope of possible errors when publishing the results of the public opinion poll related to the elections.”
Public Opinion Survey, one of the components of providing information on the conduct of the pre-election campaign is Article 50.5 of the Election Code of Georgia, which sets out the criteria that are important for coverage. Failure to comply with the rules set out under that article creates the preconditions for drawing up an administrative violation report.
In accordance with the rule established by the Election Code of Georgia, the process regarding the protocols should be continued in the Tbilisi City Court in accordance with the rules established by the Code of Administrative Offenses. In case of finding a violation, in accordance with the Aricle 82 of the Organic Law, the expected fine for each broadcaster is ?5,000.
At a public meeting of August 26, the representatives of the broadcasters did not share the Commission's approach and pointed out that the research published by the political party "Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia" at the briefing was a pre-election activity and news.
According to the representative of the Public Broadcaster, this was not a pre-election program or a debate, it was only the activity of the election subject as news and the purpose of the broadcaster was not to cover a specific survey. Accordingly, given the context, the broadcaster had no obligation to make such a reference.
Representatives of Adjara TV and Radio of the Public Broadcaster expressed a similar position, adding that delayed coverage of the briefing in the future could lead to a loss of urgency of the issue. The representative of TV Pirveli believes that when 7 broadcasters with different editorial policies had identical problems in covering the issue, it would be better for the commission to listen to all of them and refuse to draw up a protocol.
The representative of Imedi TV and Maestro emphasizes that as a result of the legislative change, which obliges the broadcasters to indicate the exact date of the poll, the method of the poll, the exact wording of the survey questions and the possible errors in the coverage of political surveys, puts the broadcaster in unfair condition, since it is not the publisher of the research and its financial condition and sanction should depend on the publisher of the research, be it a political party or a non-governmental organization.
According to Article 96.1 (Investigation of the circumstances of the case) of the General Administrative Code of Georgia, the administrative body "is obliged to investigate all the circumstances relevant to the case during the administrative proceedings and to make a decision based on the assessment and conciliation of these circumstances.”
No substantiated decision of the GNCC has been published so far, however, in the format of the Public Session of the Communications Commission/during the administrative proceedings the issue of liability of the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia political party was not discussed, especially regarding their responsibility to provide all the necessary information to broadcasters.
At the same time, in case of committing a minor administrative offense, the possibility of releasing the offender from administrative liability is established in accordance with Article 22 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Georgia. In view of the above factual and legal preconditions, the court is empowered to consider the issue of exemption of broadcasters from financial responsibility.
At its meeting on August 26, the Commission also granted the overall broadcasting authorization to BMG Ltd. The company intends to start joint broadcasting in Georgian and English by May 15, 2022, which will be distributed via cable network. Business Media Georgia is a multimedia resource that brings together news about business and economics in both TV and online broadcasts.