Advertising company Alma refuses to place hateful banners, calls for ban of such ads
Several complaints were filed in the Central Election Commission (CEC) over the billboards, however, the CEC found no legal basis for drawing up a violation report on the placement of anti-opposition banners. Photo: Netgazeti.ge.
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Advertising company Alma has announced that it will ‘not put up hate speech banners’ and addressed the Georgian parliament with an initiative to ban hateful advertisements.
Billboards depicting the opposition as ‘bloody’ appeared on September 17 in Tbilisi ahead of the October 2 municipal elections which depicted opposition political leaders, including former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia and the media managers of two opposition-minded TV channels Nika Gvaramia and Nodar Meladze from Mtavari Arkhi and TV Pirveli.
The ‘bloody’ billboards read: ‘No to Natsis (referring to the largest opposition United National Movement (UNM) party), No to evil, No to betrayal.’
We have made a unilateral decision and Alma will refuse to place billboards containing hate speech which aim to polarize the public,” the statement of the advertising company reads.
The company also said that such a decision might lead to ‘legal proceedings against the company,’ however, Alma says that their ‘decision is final in relation to any subject.’
The company addressed the parliament on October 3 regarding the issue and asked to ‘enable the advertising agency to legitimately refuse to provide advertising services to the advertiser’ in such cases.’
Several complaints were filed in the Central Election Commission (CEC) over the billboards, however, the CEC found no legal basis for drawing up a violation report on the placement of anti-opposition banners.
Businessman Mikheil Gabriadze claimed that he and his friends are the authors of the ‘bloody’ billboards.
The banners were removed from all locations in Georgia after the municipal elections on October 2 took place.