Open Letter of Campaign “This Affects You Too” Member Organizations to the Parliament of Georgia

As a result of restricted broadcasting of TV-Company Channel 9 and switched off radio-signals in mini-buses for the last two days, citizens of Georgia have their access to information sources restricted. Even though those decisions have some legal basis, the resulted situation caused concern of many nongovernmental and media organizations and citizens.

It happens when public availability to information and issue of pluralist media in the country became urgent problem for the civil society and international community. US State Secretary Hillary Clinton also suggested to the government of Georgia to “ensure independence and availability of information” during her last visit in Georgia; in addition to that, US ambassador to Georgia John Bass and representatives of diplomatic corps of other countries have also stressed the importance of availability of diverse and independent media for the citizens of Georgia.

In this light, we would like to again underscore the particular importance of establishment of so-called “must carry” and “must offer”- principles out of the draft-law submitted to the parliament of Georgia by the member organizations of the Campaign “This Affects You Too” on May 7. In accordance to the international practice, implementation of our suggestions will ensure availability of diverse information on various TV-channels for the population and will cancel all questions about informing population about ongoing pre-election campaign and problems of media pluralism.

We believe that it will be impossible to hold democratic and free elections without resolving these problems. So, we call upon you:

• to act in accordance to the interests of society and voters and not to allow any forms of restriction of media outlets;
• to introduce must carry and must offer principles in the legislation regulating media activities in near future;
• to maximally consider suggestions and recommendations of international organizations about necessity of pluralist media in the country