Freedom of expression, freedom of the media and information is safeguarded by the law and the Constitution of Georgia (Chapters 19 and 24) as well as a separate normative act on media freedom.
Georgia is ranking 60th in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
Adoption of the Laws on Broadcasting and on Telecommunications has initiated a new stage of development of mass media and relations within Georgia.
The Law on Broadcasting, adopted in 2004, was developed in association with the EU and Georgia acceded to the EU Directive “TV without Frontiers”. It specifies three kinds of radio and TV companies:
- Public: The Public Broadcaster shall ensure balance between news, social and political, educational and analytical, cultural and sport programmes in accordance with the interests of the public;
- Community: Community broadcasting shall serve community interests; ensure participation of representatives of the community it serves in the broadcasting process; ensure covering the opinions of minorities living within the respective service area including cultural matters, in their native language (Abkhaz, Azeri, Armenian, Ossetian and Russian). These programmes play an important role in pluralism within the mass media and address diversity within the coverage of radio and TV mass media.
Media strategic documents
- Code of Conduct for the Public Broadcaster, 2006.
- Decree #6 of the Georgian National Communications Commission, October 31, 2016 Article 3. Placement of programmes produced in non-state language(s) in the broadcasting net.
- Media and Broadcasting issues are included in the “Culture Strategy 2025” (01.07.2016) https://tinyurl.com/y9xhm3cc
- General Concept of the Programme Policy of the Public Broadcaster, 2017.
- The Transformation and Development Strategy of the Public Broadcaster “Quality, Depth, Diversity” – “Quality, Depth, Diversity” 2017
- The strategic areas of the Culture Strategy 2025 include “Sector-specific Tasks.
Media and Broadcasting- Use the potential of the media to advance public awareness about culture, cultural diversity and inter-cultural dialogue;
- Update laws and regulations and plan mechanisms in order to establish and develop cultural media outlets; encourage regional, private commercial and non-commercial media to produce cultural products and to cover cultural processes;
- Design measures to help the public broadcaster contribute to the creation and distribution of products of cultural importance;
- Produce special public broadcasting programmes, both in the official and ethnic languages, to expand opportunities for ethnic minorities to access information about cultural processes;
- Support institutions of higher education to develop programmes on cultural journalism and facilitate the participation of journalists working on culture in local and international training programmes;
- Sustain critical evaluation of professional activities to enable analysis of cultural life, which shall in return lead to increased public awareness and allow cultural professionals to assess their own work.”
The Public Broadcaster is funded with 0.15% of GDP from the state budget. The Parliament, when planning the state budget, relies on the approved GDP from the previous year, not on the projected GDP for the following year.
In 2004-2005 there was a decrease in the very small share of culture-oriented programmes; in some cases this decline was caused by closing TV companies that had special culture programmes, while in other cases the culture programmes were replaced with more profitable entertainment programmes, e.g. reality shows. In general, only some channels have short programmes in art and culture.
The estimated share of domestic television programmes produced in Georgia vs. imported products is 70 to 30. (Out of 30% imported product, the major part is produced in the USA, followed by Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Turkey, and India (serials); some product is from the Russian Federation. Almost all products are dubbed by TV companies in Georgian (no exact statistical data is available, the information is given in general).
There are only two TV companies that have a significant share of cultural content:
In 2007, the TV company “Iveria” was launched under the Patriarchy of the Georgian Apostolic Orthodox Church, which is oriented to religious and cultural development.
The only culture-oriented TV channel in Georgian media is “Artarea”. This is a private television channel.
Since December 25th, 2013, Artarea has broadcast as a cable television channel.
According to the data of 2016, culture and art make up 20% of the total content in Georgian public broadcasting. Source: Stat. from State TV, 2016.
There are no other in-depth statistics; no targeted surveys in the media have been conducted on the role of culture and cultural content.
Since 2015, Georgia has switched to digital broadcasting.
The National Strategy for Development of Broadband Networks in Georgia for 2020-2025 and the Action Plan for its implementation envisage the achievement of strategic goals and the development of a digital economy in the country. The Georgian National Communications Commission is working on the introduction of 5G technology by sharing and supporting international practices.
In 2020, a total of 295 operators were registered in the field of electronic communications, of which 89 were TV and 53 radio broadcasters.
Important projects were launched by the Communications Commission in 2020:
- Media literacy projects, including in regions densely populated by ethnic minorities.
- The Young European Ambassadors project, in which young people have deepened their knowledge of European and Euro-Atlantic integration, European values, the country’s future prospects and aspirations.
In 2020, the exclusive project of the Media Academy “Online Masterclasses” for journalists was launched. It should be noted that masterclasses are conducted by not only journalists, but also by experts in culture and art (literature and photography).
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