Freedom of expression, freedom of the media and information is safeguarded by the law and the Constitution of Georgia (Chapters 19 and 24) as well as a separate normative act on media freedom.
Georgia is ranking 60th in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
Adoption of the Laws on Broadcasting and on Telecommunications has initiated a new stage of development of mass media and relations within Georgia.
The Law on Broadcasting, adopted in 2004, was developed in association with the EU and Georgia acceded to the EU Directive “TV without Frontiers”. It specifies three kinds of radio and TV companies:
- Public: The Public Broadcaster shall ensure balance between news, social and political, educational and analytical, cultural and sport programmes in accordance with the interests of the public;
- Community: Community broadcasting shall serve community interests; ensure participation of representatives of the community it serves in the broadcasting process; ensure covering the opinions of minorities living within the respective service area including cultural matters, in their native language (Abkhaz, Azeri, Armenian, Ossetian and Russian). These programmes play an important role in pluralism within the mass media and address diversity within the coverage of radio and TV mass media.
Media strategic documents
- Code of Conduct for the Public Broadcaster, 2006.
- Decree #6 of the Georgian National Communications Commission, October 31, 2016 Article 3. Placement of programmes produced in non-state language(s) in the broadcasting net.
- Media and Broadcasting issues are included in the “Culture Strategy 2025” (01.07.2016) https://tinyurl.com/y9xhm3cc
- General Concept of the Programme Policy of the Public Broadcaster, 2017.
- The Transformation and Development Strategy of the Public Broadcaster “Quality, Depth, Diversity” – “Quality, Depth, Diversity” 2017
- The strategic areas of the Culture Strategy 2025 include “Sector-specific Tasks.
Media and Broadcasting- Use the potential of the media to advance public awareness about culture, cultural diversity and inter-cultural dialogue;
- Update laws and regulations and plan mechanisms in order to establish and develop cultural media outlets; encourage regional, private commercial and non-commercial media to produce cultural products and to cover cultural processes;
- Design measures to help the public broadcaster contribute to the creation and distribution of products of cultural importance;
- Produce special public broadcasting programmes, both in the official and ethnic languages, to expand opportunities for ethnic minorities to access information about cultural processes;
- Support institutions of higher education to develop programmes on cultural journalism and facilitate the participation of journalists working on culture in local and international training programmes;
- Sustain critical evaluation of professional activities to enable analysis of cultural life, which shall in return lead to increased public awareness and allow cultural professionals to assess their own work.”
The Public Broadcaster is funded with 0.15% of GDP from the state budget. The Parliament, when planning the state budget, relies on the approved GDP from the previous year, not on the projected GDP for the following year.
In 2004-2005 there was a decrease in the very small share of culture-oriented programmes; in some cases this decline was caused by closing TV companies that had special culture programmes, while in other cases the culture programmes were replaced with more profitable entertainment programmes, e.g. reality shows. In general, only some channels have short programmes in art and culture.
The estimated share of domestic television programmes produced in Georgia vs. imported products is 70 to 30. (Out of 30% imported product, the major part is produced in the USA, followed by Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Turkey, and India (serials); some product is from the Russian Federation. Almost all products are dubbed by TV companies in Georgian (no exact statistical data is available, the information is given in general).
There are only two TV companies that have a significant share of cultural content:
In 2007, the TV company “Iveria” was launched under the Patriarchy of the Georgian Apostolic Orthodox Church, which is oriented to religious and cultural development.
The only culture-oriented TV channel in Georgian media is “Artarea”. This is a private television channel.
Since December 25th, 2013, Artarea has broadcast as a cable television channel.
According to the data of 2016, culture and art make up 20% of the total content in Georgian public broadcasting. Source: Stat. from State TV, 2016.
There are no other in-depth statistics; no targeted surveys in the media have been conducted on the role of culture and cultural content.
Since 2015, Georgia has switched to digital broadcasting.
The National Strategy for Development of Broadband Networks in Georgia for 2020-2025 and the Action Plan for its implementation envisage the achievement of strategic goals and the development of a digital economy in the country. The Georgian National Communications Commission is working on the introduction of 5G technology by sharing and supporting international practices.
In 2020, a total of 295 operators were registered in the field of electronic communications, of which 89 were TV and 53 radio broadcasters.
2021-2024
The public broadcaster unites two TV channels – Georgian First Channel (broadcasting since 1956) and Second Channel (since 1991), as well as Teleschool (since 2020); radio channels – Georgian Radio FM 102.3 (since 1925), Georgian Radio Music FM 100.9 (since 1995); online platform 1TV.ge, as well as mobile applications for smartphones running on Android and iOS operating systems.
External production
The public broadcaster is one of the largest producers of original Georgian programs and documentaries in the country. It is also committed to supporting and investing in the industry in this area.
In 2018, as a result of legislative changes, it became possible to fulfil the obligation defined by the Law of Georgia “On Broadcasting” – to cede at least 25% of production to programs produced by independent studios.
In 2023, as a result of legislative changes, at least 10% of budgetary funding should be allocated to Georgian feature TV films, TV documentaries and TV series.
In 2023, up to GEL 8 million was spent on external production, which is about 9.1 percent of the total budget. It is planned to maintain the mentioned trend in the future as well, investments will be directed towards promoting the production of original Georgian products.
In October 2024, a new building of the Public Broadcaster was opened, equipped in accordance with modern standards.
Diversity is one of the strategic directions of the Public Broadcaster.
However, there are some controversies in this regard.
Legislation
- The issue of cultural diversity in the media regulatory legislation is inadequate.
- Issues of media and culture correlation are not adequately covered in the legislation
- At the same time, the adoption in 2024 of the Foreign Influence Transparency Law of Georgia is perceived by representatives of the nongovernmental sector and media, as well as part of society and international partners as a danger threatening democratic values, media freedom and pluralism; in addition, this law creates a problem for self-expression and, consequently, the diversity of creative expression.
Cultural diversity activities
- The cultural activities carried out by the initiative of various organizations (mainly local and non-governmental organizations, as well as international organizations) are covered with more or less intensity by the Public Broadcaster.
The issue of public awareness-raising – the use of public media on the diversity of cultural expressions – is not satisfactorily addressed.
Awareness problem
- Media diversity is a significant component of cultural self-expression. However, coverage of cultural events by the Georgian media is inadequate, and the time and place for professional criticism in the culture field is inadequate in almost any media environment.
- In the context of cultural self-expression, there is a lack of joint efforts of the state, society (and primarily, the expert community) and the media to develop the diversity of media that can be explained by the low level of understanding of these issues in all three sectors;
- The lack of responsibility of the mass media for promoting and protecting the diversity of cultural expression creates an unfavourable environment; consequently, the lack of popularization of quality cultural product and the lack of cooperation with institutions responsible for implementing the Convention is constantly increasing.
Monitoring and Research
- Despite the stable practice of media monitoring and the activities of numerous qualified non-governmental organizations, there is no research on the cultural content of the media and the diversity of cultural self-expression.
- There are no media monitoring projects, evaluation documents, or debates within the cultural context.
- There is no research base or methodology for media related to culture; although the Journalistic Ethics Charter systematically publishes studies, nothing has been conducted in the areas of culture, languages, ethnic cultural diversity, or the protection of artists’ socioeconomic rights.
Support Measures/Programmes/Initiatives
- There are no legislative or other supportive measures to motivate the media and encourage the active involvement of civil society in promoting cultural diversity in the media. As a result, there is a lack of activity among cultural specialists in this area, and the socioeconomic rights of artists and cultural workers are only of interest to the media in the context of political disputes.
- Media inspiration for cultural activities is very rare, and government support for media-culture collaboration is sporadic and low-budget.
- There is no targeted support for projects involving cooperation with the governing bodies of the Convention to address issues of inaccessible Georgian broadcasting for Georgian-speaking populations in occupied territories, including the implementation of relevant Convention articles (Article 8 – Measures to Protect Cultural Self-Expression and Article 17 – International Cooperation in Situations of Serious Threat to Cultural Self-Expression).
- The media does not address or study the issues faced by artists and cultural workers living in occupied territories.
- There is no state support for monitoring cultural content in the media.
- The conflict between the financial profitability of various media products and their cultural value hinders private businesses from sponsoring high-standard cultural content.
- The lack of transparency in criteria for determining the prioritization of cultural fields by mass media and the difficulty in obtaining state funding for media projects related to culture impede the improvement of cultural content quality.
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