The Communications Commission (ComCom) this week upheld two complaints filed by the ruling Georgian Dream party against opposition-leaning TV stations. In one of the cases, the appeal concerned the refusal of some channels to broadcast the party’s advertisement, which, according to these channels, contains “hate speech” and violates the law. In another case, the appeal concerned the placement of individual political ads by parties currently in coalition with other parties, as well as the allegedly unequal distribution of airtime for free political advertisements.
ComCom’s Decision on Refusal to Air GD’s Ad
On September 13, ComCom issued a protocol of administrative violations against the opposition-leaning TV Pirveli and Formula TV for not broadcasting the ruling Georgian Dream party’s political ad. A day earlier, ComCom fined Mtavari TV GEL 5,000 (about USD 1,800) for the same reason, and that decision was also upheld today by the Tbilisi City Court.
Both TV Pirveli and Formula TV initially aired GD’s political advertisement, but after a few days took it off the air, claiming that the video contained “hate speech” and violated the Broadcasting Law or the Advertising Law of Georgia. GD appealed to ComCom with a request to issue a protocol of administrative violations against these channels, which the Commission granted.
According to ComCom, during a public meeting today, the Commission listened to arguments from all sides and determined that the ad “does not contain hate speech or incitement violence”. It noted: “The video produced by the campaign unit is intended to present the pre-election vision of the political union,” adding: “Therefore, the video presented does not violate the requirements of the legislation in force and the broadcaster was obliged to broadcast it.”
In the case of Mtavari TV, the station appealed to the Tbilisi City Court against ComCom’s decision to fine it on September 12. The station’s lawyers argued during the hearing that according to the Georgian Broadcasting Law, the political party doesn’t have the right to portray in a negative light anyone who doesn’t represent another political entity participating in the upcoming elections. In this particular video, CSO representatives are shown in black with the words “Say no to moral degradation” written over them in red [See the frames here].
Despite Mtavari TV‘s claims, the Court decided to uphold ComCom’s decision to fine it. The station plans to challenge this ruling in the Appeal’s Court.
ComCom’s Decision on Individual Ads, Airtime Distribution
On September 12, ComCom upheld the GD’s complaint against the channels Mtavari TV, Public Broadcaster, TV Pirveli and Formula TV and issued a protocol of administrative violations against these channels for their decision to broadcast individual political advertisements of parties that intend to participate in the upcoming elections in coalition with others. The Commission also stated that due to the precedential nature of the issue, it would appeal to the court to exempt the broadcasters from the obligation to pay fines.
The GD’s appeal claimed that one electoral subject cannot place an advertisement in favor of another electoral subject within the airtime allotted to it. Currently, the situation is such that the parties “European Georgia” and “Yes to Europe” have publicly declared that they will run in the elections in coalition with the “United National Movement”, and the political association “Citizens” has announced a coalition with “Lelo”. Therefore, GD believes that it is illegal for these individual parties to broadcast separate free political advertisements, because it serves to support the parties with which they are in coalition.
GD also claimed that on Mtavari TV and TV Pirveli, the time allotted to political advertisements of “Unity – National Movement” and “Ahali” is more than the time allotted to other parties, allegedly violating the Electoral Code. ComCom granted both requests of the Georgian Dream party.
In a briefing held by Tamar Kordzaia, a member of the “Unity to Save Georgia” coalition, she emphasized that the problem with ComCom’s decision lies in the fact that none of the above-mentioned parties have legally registered their decision to participate in the elections in a coalition and have until September 26 to form official unified lists. Before that date, they have the full right to revoke their publicly announced decision and participate in the elections separately, so if they do so, then ComCom’s decision to deprive them of their right to free political advertising will be unlawful.
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