A Georgian watchdog “Transparency International-Georgia” has criticized Georgia’s Communication Commission (ComCom) for unfair measures against the critical media channels.
The watchdog condemned ComCom for fining channels that refused to air advertisements of the Ruling Party, Georgian Dream. “Transparency International-Georgia” has called these actions “extremely unethical, unfair, and misleading.
The news channel refused to play the ad with the phrase “Say no to the moral degradation of society” in the background. The Communications Commission has imposed a penalty of GEL 5000 against each of these media channels . It amount to total fine of USD 1830.
The lawyer of Mtavari while sharing his point of view said that as per Georgian law political advertisements must not target non-political individuals. According to the Lawyer the main reason behind refusing to air GD’s advertisement was that it aimed to target non-political individuals.
Similarly according to the version of TI-Georgia an another TV channel was fined by the commission they have challenged the decision in a higher court. The watchdog in its statement underlined that it is sad to see such development in the country which is going for an election.
As per the watchdog’s statement, “We strongly believe that the advertisements of Georgian Dream with an attack on non-political individuals is a planned attack.
This is a grave violation of the rights of these people who have no political affiliation and are being scapegoated by the ruling regime only to meet their vested interests.”
The statement stressed how this directions of Georga’s ComCom caused a major financial blow to all media houses of the country. It is worth noting that two channels Georgia’s European Orbit and TI-Georgia, have filed a complaint before the commission to remove Georgian Dream’s advertisement or issue an order against Georgian Dream for removing objectionable content.
The channel Georgia’s European Orbit has filed a separate appeal before the (CEC) Central Election Commission of Georgia as well. On the other hand the representatives of the TI-Georgia asked the GD’s officials to stop targeting media and monitoring organisations.
They also urged GD’s supporters and media to stop propagating against monitoring organisations to ensure fair election.
