EU, UNDP election media monitoring report: media polarization growing in run-up to elections
The research covers 43 different media outlets, including 12 television stations, 10 radio stations, eight print newspapers and 13 online editions. Photo: livepress.ge.
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Media polarisation is growing in Georgia and reporting is becoming less balanced as voting day for the parliamentary elections approaches, says the second interim election media monitoring report of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The monitoring revealed that the polarisation of TV news programmes is even more intense than during the first reporting period; that instances of negative coverage and defamation of the opposition by pro-government TV channels increased sharply; and that TV stations that are critical of the Government increased their negative tone towards the ruling team and the government,“ says the report.
EU+UN election media monitoring results for 1 Sept - 15 Oct are out.
— Carl Hartzell (@CarlHartzellEU) October 29, 2020
Interesting read. Increasing polarisation of TV landscape, incl. uncritical, one-sided content. Reassuring that hate speech & misinfo attempts don’t get traction, esp on social media!
➡️https://t.co/gMHRm5GIyL pic.twitter.com/MlUMANaRZX
The report says that accuracy remains problematic in newspapers as they often rely on unverified sources.
Polarisation is spreading to social media, including Facebook pages associated with political parties, officials and politicians,” reads the report.
The report says that all TV stations are following the role of foreign actors in the Georgian elections, with a focus on the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Russian Federation, and the United States.
Photo: mediamonitor.ge.
The report on media coverage serves as a critical tool for both journalists and the public in fulfilling their civic duties during elections…While we hope to see more in-depth analysis in the future, we see progress in that these elections have featured a calmer tone and more diverse party options,” said UNDP Head Louisa Vinton.
Photo: mediamonitor.ge.
The second report of election media monitoring published today finds increasing polarisation and a remaining scarcity of in-depth reporting,” notes Asunción Sánchez Ruiz, Deputy Head of Delegation, Head of Political, Press and Information Section at the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia.
The EU-funded monitoring of media coverage of parliamentary elections in Georgia is implemented by the UNDP with support of three Georgian civil society organizations including the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, Internews Georgia and CRRC-Georgia. The research covers 43 different media outlets, including 12 television stations, 10 radio stations, eight print newspapers and 13 online editions.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia told journalists earlier today that the election campaign of the ruling Georgia Dream party is ‘very open and transparent’. At the meeting with journalists in the western Georgian town of Poti, PM Gakharia denied allegations that the government had been using administrative resources, threats and resorting to vote-buying.
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), an independent not-for-profit NGO, has published its second interim report on social media pre-election monitoring, which identified 66 unofficial, anonymous and false media Facebook pages which have been working during the campaign period to discredit political parties in an organised fashion.
The National Democratic Institute (NDI) has released recommendations ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Georgia. The recommendations are based on an analysis of the work of the electoral administration, the campaign environment, gender and inclusion, media and disinformation and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Election coverage has become more diverse in recent years in the country, but analytical depth is lacking and some outlets resort to gender stereotypes, reads an interim election media monitoring report for 2020 released by the EU and UNDP.
The European Union has announced today the deployment of a European diplomatic watch, which will send over 70 teams to visit over 1,000 polling stations in Georgia on the election day on October 31. Travelling in specially EU marked cars and wearing EU vests and hats, the diplomatic watch teams will follow all relevant COVID-19 safety precautions.
A study into how information is acquired by citizens of Georgia, as well as their attitudes to its sources, says the local information ecosystem is "rich and plural", however "many challenges" remain in the field.
Findings of the media monitoring research released by the European Union (EU) and UNDP earlier today show that ‘tensions between media camps have only increased’ between the parliamentary elections in 2020 and the local elections in 2021. Moreover, ‘deep partisan divisions’ have defined the electoral media environment in Georgia throughout all recent elections.