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TV Broadcasters in the government’s service – “International transparency – Georgia” diagnosis

November 30, 2009

Saba Tsitsikashvili

In his interview to CNN on October 15 of 2009, the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili stated that there were 27 independent channels in Georgia and more than one political talk show was on the air daily. In fact, there are even more channels in Georgia, though information on their actual owners is unavailable.

According to an assessment of “International transparency – Georgia”, the TV space is today less independent than it used to be prior to the “Rose revolution” and President Shevardnadze’s regime.

As it becomes clear from the report drafted by the organization, under the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) Georgia has a commitment to improve the quality of media freedom, as one of the major institute that promotes the development of democratic political system. At the end of autumn of the current year the European Union emphasized once again that the fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression and freedom of media, were vital components of the process of bilateral dialogue with Georgia. 

In his address of September 2008 regarding “a new wave of democratic reforms”, Mikheil Saakashvili admitted for the first time that insufficient freedom of media remained “the major challenge for democracy” of Georgia. He stressed that he was not going to interfere in private media companies’ activities, but would rather direct his efforts towards reforming the public broadcasting service and ensure that oppositional parties have more access to TV air. Despite these promises, no major improvements in electronic media can be observed over the last year.

The EU report of April 2009 underlines that freedom of media and pluralism still remains problematic in Georgia. The European diplomats call upon the government of Georgia to fulfill its commitments as soon as possible. According to the studies of the European monitoring organizations, the quality of media freedom in Georgia over the last years has considerably deteriorated. According to the 2009 “press freedom rating” published by FREEDOM HOUSE, Georgia, like Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, is approaching the rating of countries where media “is not free”.

Though it is true that printed media is pluralistic, its coverage area is quite insignificant and includes big cities only. Based on the assessment of “Reporters without boundaries”, a little improvement in the quality of media freedom can be observed after the Russian-Georgian war in August of 2008. Though according to international NGOs key assessments, media is less free today than it used to be in 2003.

As “International transparency – Georgia” assesses, the three principal national channels (Rustavi 2, Imedi and the First Public Broadcasting Service) seem to be less interested in broadcasting programs where debates on critical issues could be held between the executive authorities, the ruling party and the opposition. The fact that informational programs broadcasted on these channels are almost identical is also a problem, and raises a doubt that their news are made under certain coordination.

“It’s not only informational programs that make the national channels similar, but the fact that all of them avoid criticizing the government activities. They don’t let air to investigative programs either”, -is stated in the conclusion.

In her interview with “Transparency – Georgia”, the Director of NGO “Internews” Tamuna Kakulia referred to informational programs of the national broadcasters as “absolutely identical and managed”.

“There’s no serious competition between the broadcasters in present day reality”, - stressed the Media Support Program Manager of “Open Society – Georgia” foundation, Khatia Djindjikhadze. “When regional news is to be covered, one reporter is sent to the region from all the three channels. Previously all the three channels used to send its own reporter and all the three tried to cover the news better than others. Today it’s very common to see news, the only distinguishing feature of which is different voices laid on the images. It’s not only news that are identical on the national channels, but their succession coincides as well”.

Despite this fact, as the report states the credibility of media is quite high – the majority of respondents consider broadcasted news to be reliable. 63% assess the media work as positive, while only 28% give negative assessment. Only church, army and police have higher credibility.

65% of Georgians believe that mass media is completely (20%) or partially (45%) free from state control, while 16% considers that media is not completely free, and only 3% believes that it is completely controlled.

One of the owners of the most influential channel of present day Georgia – Rustavi 2 and Mze is an offshore company DEGISON LIMITED, registered on the British Virginia islands. The second “mysterious organization” – DENAL UNION controls 100% of TV Company “Sakartvelo” (a channel associated with the Ministry of Defense) and 51% of “Evrika”.  The legal structure of RAKEEN and its daughter company, RAKEEN GEORGIA HOLDING is also very unclear; there are doubts that its real owners are the Georgians. RAKEEN GEORGIA HOLDING holds 90% of TV company “Imedi” shares.

There’s one more known means of “masking” real owners of TV companies in Georgia, i.e. the creation of so-called “mediator”.  For example, it was known to everybody that “Imedi” was financed by a businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili. Though the official shareholders of the channel were his friends Gogi Djaoshvili and RUPERT MURDOCH’s NEWS HORP.

As the study of Georgia’s TV space conducted by IREX points out, lack of transparency in the issue of media owners and diversity hinders development of free media”.

Georgia’s Industrial Group owns 30% of “Rustavi 2” shares, 45% of “Mze” and 65% of “The First Stereo”. With the first two TV channels, much of the shares belong to an offshore company DEGISON LIMITED. Georgia’s Industrial Group also owns “Georgia’s Business Consulting” that produces the English newspaper “GEORGIAN BUSINESS WEEK” and the agency GBH.GE. The founder of this company Davit Bezhuashvili is a member of the ruling party, a deputy of the Parliament of Georgia and a brother of former Foreign Affairs Minister, Gela Bezhuashvili.

Currently the GEORGIAN MEDIA INTERPORATED, Georgia’s Industrial Group’s daughter company, is also “Imedi’s” shareholder that means that the Group owns and controls two-third of media market.

It’s obvious that the existing regulations fail to prevent the process of media concentration.

Despite the fact that the small-scale televisions – “Caucasus” and “Maestro” have certain segments in the market, attraction of advertisements remains a significant problem for them.

In July of 2009, “Maestro” was issued a license permitting it to broadcast its programs over the whole territory of Georgia through satellite, though due to scarce financial resources it cannot afford paying a monthly payment of 18 000 USD. In September 2009, during his speech delivered at the UN Assembly, Miheil Saakashvili cited “Maestro” saying: “We have already issued licenses to opposition controlled TV channels so that they could broadcast throughout the whole territory of Georgia”. According to Mamuka Ghlonti, while the President was delivering a speech in New-York, the cable companies in Georgia were subjected to political pressure to make them refuse to air “Maestro”.  As a result, “Maestro’s” signal is not transmitted by Akhmeta and Rustavi cable channels even today.

Meanwhile, problems have occurred at Channel 25 of Adjara. As per Batumi Civil Court decision of October 9, 2009  the TV channel had to pay a tax debt of 277 547 GEL, otherwise its property would be sold at auction. The co-owner of the channel Merab Merkviladze qualified the court decision as politically motivated and explained that much of the debt accumulated before 2004, in the period when the channel was taken away unlawfully from its legal owner by Aslan Abashidze, former leader of Adjara then. Merkviladze does not deny that his company really has a tax debt, but it does not exceed 70, 000 GEL. This debt has been accumulated during the years 2006-2009.

Based on the above facts, “International Transparency – Georgia” addresses the government of Georgia with the following recommendations:

1. It is vital to speed up the process of Public Broadcasting Service reforming and ensure wide and open discussions during the process. Strengthening the first channel with informative and critical pieces of news will significantly contribute to “breaking up” the ice and establishing a more pluralistic TV space. The channel’s steering committee shall be freed from political pressure. One of the best ways to achieve it might be granting the exclusive right for selecting membership candidates to civil society and various interest groups. Members shall be approved through public hearings, maximally transparent process and majority of votes, i.e. two-third of votes at the Parliament.

2. It is also important to change the system of financing for public broadcaster. Presently, decisions on the amount of funding are made by government, threatening its independence thereby. Introducing a fee for receiving public broadcasters signal could be one of the ways to solve this problem. This will increase its level of independence, and contribute to improving planning process of both finances and activities in the longer term. Moreover, if citizens of Georgia will pay directly a special, public broadcaster related fee they will have a feeling of co-owners of this channel and would require that the channel be accountable to them, primarily.

3. The existing system of regulations for media fails to ensure transparency with regards to media owners and competitive, pluralistic TV market. Legislative amendments need to be made that would prohibit offshore, mysterious companies to have shares in mass media and ensure that any person has an opportunity to find out the identity of the shareholders, along with media owners or co-owners. 

4.  To achieve depoliticization of National Commission for Communications of Georgia, the rule for appointing commission members needs to be changed and transparency of its activities increased so that its work becomes more efficient and the public credibility both towards the Commission and TV space increases, as a result.  

The details of study “TV space in Georgia – owners, controllers and legislative environment” conducted by “International Transparency – Georgia” are available at:

http://humanrights.ge/admin/editor/uploads/pdf/GEORGIA%20Television%20in%20Georgia%20%20Ownership%20Control%20and%20Regulation.pdf

http://humanrights.ge/admin/editor/uploads/pdf/Control%20and%20Regulation%20%20BACKGROUND.pdf

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