Tbilisi: Another pro-government channel “Imedi TV ” in Georgia refused to air the advertisements of opposition parties.
The channel made it clear that unless opposition channels agreed to broadcast Georgian Dream advertisements, they would also not show ads of opposition parties.
It is worth noting that recently, some channels refused to broadcast the advertisement of the Georgian Dream, the ruling party of Georgia. The names of the channels include Mtavari TV, Formula TV, and TV Pirveli.
These channels cited the reason for refusing GD’s advertisement as the advertisement containing images of a war-torn region of Georgia. The advertisement called Georgian people to select peace or war using images of Ukraine.
According to these channels the images of Ukarine are being used to influence public opinion. Moreover they call the campaigns of these channels unacceptable, unethical and false propaganda.
In a statement issued by Imedi TV, stated our decision was just a reaction to the action of opposition pro channels who intentionally refused to air the Georgian Drea advertisement Georgia.
The same statement further added that we have a very clear editorial policy. However we will not allow the United National Movement and its other partner opposition parties to come to power once again.
Notbay Communication Commission commented , the decision of channels that refused to air the advertisement of Georgian Dream is a clear violation of Georgia’s model code of conduct.
While blaming the opposition media houses the statement underlined that this is totally illegal and that an equal environment is not being created, which is extremely necessary for the smooth conduct of the election.
As Imedi said we will not air the advertisements of opposition political parties until and unless an equal and balanced environment is created.
On the other hand the opposition parties said they expect that the communication commission will take action against these news channels, the same way they have taken action against the opponents’ channels for alleged violation of the code.
Notably the election for parliament is going to be held on October 26. The opposition parties blamed the Georgian Dream for trying to influence public opinion.