Media Transparency – Kind Will of the Government or Result of International Oppression
October 27, 2010
Malkhaz Chkadua, Interpersnews
After less optimistic evaluations of the international organizations the government of Georgia remembered about the media transparency.
On October 20, international journalistic organization – “Reporters without Borders” issued its ninth annual index on world press freedom in various states. In the document, the index of Georgia fell in 18 points in comparison to 2009 and occupied the 100th place on the list.
According to the evaluation of the famous international organization, one of the criteria for their index is access to public information and transparency of the media-owners together with the safety of journalistic activities. The introduction to the survey, which was published on the official website of the organization, does not make any additional clarifications about the situation in Georgia. However, it is fact that in comparison to previous years the index in Georgia has seriously fallen.
The representatives of the Council of Europe and EU, as well as other international organizations and influential media-outlets also request transparency of the media-owners in Georgia.
Director of the Radio “Liberty” and members of the Broadcasting Council stated when commenting on the media situation during their visit in Tbilisi that transparency of media-owners is the issue which will support the government and society to have more democracy.
Publicity of media-owners was one of the main issues which were envisaged in the EU-Georgian action plan. In this direction Foundation “Open Society – Georgia” carried out special survey whose author was media-expert Nino Danelia.
When presenting the survey results expert underscored that law should guarantee the transparency of media-owners not only on the level of person/legal entities altogether; media-owner shall not be registered in off-shore zones and only one owner shall not own media-outlets (directly or indirectly through third person, owning shares, etc).
The survey also indicates that publicity of the information about media-owners shall be guaranteed in order to allow every interested person to have access to this information.
In November of 2009, non-governmental organization Transparency International – Georgia published special report “Television in Georgia – Ownership, Control and Regulation.” The document states that Georgia's current regulation of the broadcasting sector has proven insufficient to ensure a transparent media ownership regime and to promote a competitive, pluralistic television market.
The report not only tries to shed some light on the ownership of the country's broadcasters but also provides an assessment of the market environment television stations are operating in. According to the report, those, who wanted to anonymously own and control TV-Companies, used current liberal system of regulation. This system does not ban ownership of the shares of media-outlets and of companies which are for example registered abroad in off-shore zones.
“Individuals who are aiming to anonymously control private TV stations have taken advantage of this liberal regulation and established off-shore post boxes in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands, where Degson Limited, dominant co-owner of Georgia's most influential channel, Rustavi 2, and of Mze, another national channel, is registered,” stated the report.
“TI-Georgia” stated in its report that one more unidentified company Denal Union owns 100 % of the TV-Company “Sakartvelo” (the channel is associated with the Ministry of Defense of Georgia). According to the report, the legal structure of the Rakeen and its subsidiary company RAAK Georgia Holding (99% owner of the TV-Company Imedi) is also vague.
“There are grounded doubts that their real owners are Georgian people,” the document states.
The report discusses corresponding legislative base and states that according to the Article 60 of the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting “A person/legal entity may possess independently or with an interdependent person/legal entity no more than one terrestrial broadcasting license for television and one for radio in any one service area.” This article does not ban person/legal entity to have shares in several companies simultaneously. The Georgian legislation does not regulate which share might be controlled by person/legal entity in the media.
Consequently, “Georgian Industrial Group” owns 30 % of Rustavi 2, 45 % of “Mze” and 65 % of the “Pirveli Stereo”. In case of the first two TV-Companies, off-shore company Degson Limited owns the most shares in them. Georgian Industrial Group also won Georgian Business-Consulting which publishes English-language newspaper Georgian Business Week and owns news agency GBC.ge. The founder of this company is Davit Bezhuashvili – member of the ruling party, MP and brother of the former chairman of the security council of Georgia and foreign minister of Georgia Gela Bezhuashvili.
The report also lists more than 40 TV-Companies in Georgia and publishes their official owners; the information was provided by the Georgian National Communication Commission (GNCC).
“Co-owners of several regional TV-Companies are local officials or their family members,” stated the report.
According to the report, GNCC, which “is not independent institution yet,” does not have authority to estimate who factual owners of the TV-Companies are and investigate who stand behind legal owners of the licenses.
“This problem could be addressed by an amendment of the broadcasting law in order to ensure that sufficient information about the shareholder structure of license holders and their indirect owners is reported to the GNCC and also made accessible to the general public,” stated the report.
According to official information, which is published on the GNCC website, the following companies and persons stand behind national and regional broadcasters.
TV-Company “I Stereo” – Tbilisi, 65% Georgian Industrial Group LLC Holding Company, 22% Zilpimiani Davit, 10% Kopuleto Marko, 3% Severini Luka; “Imedi TV” – Tbilisi, RAAK Georgia Holding S.A, 10% Kay, Joseph); “Kavkasia” – Tbilisi – 100% Jangirashvili Nino; “Mze” – Tbilisi - 55% Degson Limited LLC, 45% Georgian Industrial Group LLC Holding Company; “Odishi” - -Zugdidi - 70% Grigolia Emma, 20% Kobalia Alexandre, 10% Kim Kim; “Real-TV” – Tbilisi,- 100% Paichadze Ia; “Rustavi 2” – Tbilisi - 30% Georgian Industrial Group LLC Holding Company, 70% Degson Limited; ‘Sakartvelo” – Tbilisi - 100% “Denal Union”; Studio “Maestro” – Tbilisi - 38% Ebralidze Giorgi, 38% Ghlonti Mamuka, 19% Chikvaidze Levan.
Adjara TV is not on the list; it is owned by the administration of Adjara Autonomous Republic; as well as first and second channels of the public broadcasting who are not under license regime.
Chairman of the parliament of Georgia Davit Bakradze stated they are often rebuked for non-transparency of the media-owners in Georgia. The government of Georgia has desire to make the personality of every media-owner and sources of their funding public.
The chairman of the parliament added that the government initiated to work out a new standard of media transparency which will be equal to the US media transparency standard, etc.
“We will move on to higher standards,” – stated Davit Bakradze and commissioned the Committee of Legal Issues and Sector Economy and Economic Policy to start working on the relevant draft law in two weeks.
Davit Bakradze doesn’t concretely indicate what it means to move on to higher standards and states that this will be reflected in the draft law. But, thereby Parliament Chair draws attention to offshore zones.
According to him, the media owners registered in the offshore zones are unknown and the goal of Georgian government is to make this process transparent.
In the opinion of Giorgi Targamadze, the leader of Christian Democrats, the government’s initiative is connected to the pressure of international community. “Georgia holds embarrassing 100th position in the media freedom ranking, that’s why your initiative is welcomed,” – stated Targamadze.
Member of Parliament majority Goka Gabashvili links the government’s decision on media transparency to the desire of official Tbilisi to strengthen the status of most democratic country in the region.
The opposition deputy Jondi Baghaturia requested the transparency of appropriation process of TV Company Imedi. According to him, along with the names of owners of TV companies, the process of transferring these TV companies to the latest owners should be known.
“We shall be aware of not only the names of owners, but also who was replaced and how,” - stated Jondi Baghaturia. According to Lasha Tughushi, the chief editor of Resonance, international organizations are not interested in finding out the names of owners of Georgian televisions.
“The situation that is going on in our media is uneasy. The names of television owners are obscure. This is unacceptable. Public shall know the truth, who the media belongs to. It’s very hard to receive information about the owners of offshore zones. I think that the topic of offshores should be closed,” – stated Tughushi.
According to him, along with the transparency of media owners, the financial transparency of televisions is needed.
“It is interesting who finances the television and where the finances are drawn from. Along with many other problems, this too is an important matter,” - stated Lasha Tughushi.
The General Director of TV Company “Maestro” Kakha Bekauri stated that the names of media owners are known for the government, but they are trying to deceive the society.
“I am asking Davit Bakradze to stop deceiving people, come in and publicly name the owner of Rustavi 2 and Imedi,” – stated Kakha Bekauri, - “The fact is that it is in the government’s interest not to transfer the media in the hands of its enemies, in this case, it would be hard to exercise the control on it. And this means that they know who the owner of the concrete media sources is.
The head of TV Company Maestro thinks that government is obligated to disclose the names of owners of offshore companies registered in Panama. According to Bekauri, Bakradze’s statement is the next trick of government by which the government is trying to find way out from the critical situation.
“Television is a serious tool by which government tries to control the country. Government is manipulating with television channels, that is why it’s hard for me to believe that government is interesting in finding out the names of media owners,” – stated the media expert Ia Antadze.
According to Antadze, up until now the government was using all means to better control the propagandist machine and put the pressure on media owners.
“Many problems in Georgian media are connected to the media owners and mystifying their names. New initiative is kind of surprising for me. The theme of media registered in offshore zones is rather hard. If government shows interest in media owners and declare it publicly, I think the life will change a lot,” – stated Ia Antadze.
According to Ia Antadze, international organizations and foreign ambassadors have exact information on the problems in Georgian media.
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