Communications Commission: ‘political bias, disinformation remain main challenges for broadcasters’

“Political bias and spreading disinformation remain the main challenges for Georgian broadcasters”, reads the newly published report of the Georgian National Communications Commission.

Monitoring of six national broadcasters during the pre-election period shows that the media is ‘pluralistic and diverse, although sharply polarized in Georgia.’

The key findings of the monitoring are as follows:

• News programmes, as well as socio-political programmes on TV channels TV Pirveli, Mtavari Arkhi and Imedi are characterized by a violation of balance and journalistic standards. TV presenters openly supported election subjects and called on viewers to support them. Hate speech was often used by TV Pirveli and Mtavari Arkhi”.
• The political developments in the country and abroad during the pre-election period was covered by the Public Broadcaster in a balanced and neutral manner. Time was devoted to all political subjects. Journalists did not use hate speech. The pre-election campaign of the run-offs was covered by Adjara TV and Radio Broadcaster in compliance with legal norms and journalistic standards, in an impartial, non-discriminatory tone. Journalists did not express political sympathy and didn’t use discriminatory terminology.
• TV Imedi journalists expressed positive attitudes towards the ruling Georgian Dream party and its candidates and negative attitude towards the United National Movement opposition party. GD party members were mainly invited to social and political programs.
• Rustavi 2 provided its viewers with fact-based information on a daily basis. There were no cases of disinformation or manipulation. Despite the fact that the viewers had the opportunity to hear the position of different parties on political issues, the main challenge for the channel remained to maintain balance between the parties. Firs and concluding remarks were mostly made by the members of the ruling party.
• TV Pirveli’s biased attitude towards opposition party members became even clearer during the run-offs. The broadcaster offered viewers ‘exclusive’ material based on a ‘secret/confidential source’. ‘Exclusive’ news was often based only on the doubts and assumptions of the journalists.
• Mtavari Arkhi was biased towards the members of the opposition parties. Large amount of time was devoted to the United National Movement and its mayoral candidate. Journalists openly expressed negative attitudes towards the ruling party and government officials. Mtavari Arkhi’s airtime was mainly devoted to criticism of the government and the Georgian Dream.

The report covers the municipal election run-off period from October 3 to October 30, 2021.