Parliament approves Georgian Public Broadcaster competition group

The approved group of people were earlier nominated for the role but were refused.
Agenda.ge, 20 Mar 2014 - 13:21, Tbilisi,Georgia

Georgian Parliament has approved a competition committee that will select people to fill the remaining vacancies on the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) Board of Trustees.

The approved group of people were earlier nominated for the role but were refused.

They have been tasked to decide who will be selected as members of GPB’s Board. Those interested in standing for the Board have until March 26 to send in an application.

The competition comes after Parliament failed twice to fully compose the Board since discussions began in late December.

As the Board of Trustees was not recruited and the 2014 budget was not approved, GPB’s working process was delayed.

The competition committee members are: journalists Ia Antadze and Nino Bekishvili, Civil Development Agency executive director Zviad Devdariani, lawyer Natia Kapanadze, Regional Broadcasters Association executive director Natia Kuprashvili, head of Public Movement "Multinational Georgia" Arnold Stefanian, philosopher Zaza Shatirishvili, journalist Zviad Koridze and philologist Tamaz Jologua.

This group of people, who were selected by Parliament and comprised of media and civil society representatives, was widely hailed as transparent and professional. Earlier, rejection of most of the candidates selected caused many media and civil society groups to protest.

The procedure for selecting new GPB Board members will be held in two stages. Firstly, candidates will be selected in accordance with their qualification and they will discuss the concept of GPB’s development before taking part in a public interview.

In total nine trustees must be chosen for the GPB Board. Two will be named by the Ombudsman, three by the Parliamentary majority, three by the Parliamentary minority (1/4 of MPs) and one by the Supreme Court of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara.

The amendments to the Law on Broadcasting, upon which the board of the GPB is being formed, have been approved by the Georgian Parliament after a three-month discussion in May, 2013.

The amendments were initiated by the Georgian Dream coalition. The changes are believed to ensure more financial transparency for television broadcasters.