Ex-PM Ivanishvili’s NGO will study Georgia'a media environment

A non-government organisation created by former Georgian Prime Minister and billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili has invited a leading market research company to study and monitor the media environment in Georgia.

Ivanishvili's think-tank 'Citizen' launched earlier this year to study the media environment in Georgia and detmine the transparency and quality of local journalism.

Speaking to journalists, today, the CEO of Citizen Nikoloz Chkhetiani said the organisation had invited leading market research and market information group TNS to conduct comprehensive research of Georgia's media environment in the country.

Chkhetiani believed this research would be more advantageous than other similar projects.

"Most of the media research is being conducting during the election periods in the country. Thus our project is long-lasting and it is not connected to the planned elections in June,” he said.

Chkhetiani underlined that the first report of the research would be issued in three months.

"I believe this report will give us the objective picture of the media environment and quality in the country,” he added.

Initially, the project will last for a year but it may continue into the future.

Georgia's ex-Prime Minister Ivanishvili, who stepped down following the Presidential elections in October 2013, then shortly later announced that he was launching a ‘think-tank’ called Citizen, aimed at helping citizens "to hire and control the Government”.

He also said Citizen would commission monitoring of media outlets to "keep track of quality of reporting”.

Ivanishvili believed he would help media organisations and analysts to increase its professionalism.

The ex-PM, who at age 57 is estimated to have a fortune of $5.3 billion USD by Forbes magazine, pledged to put "one, two, or three million GEL annually into the organisation to fund the training of journalists and political analysts.