Transparency International – Georgia says Georgia’s Communications Commission (ComCom) and court impose “unfair” fines on critical media amid an election campaign for refusing to air the ruling party’s ad that portrays civil society representatives in an “extremely unethical, unfair, and misleading context.”
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party’s ad, which three opposition-leaning media outlets – Mtavari TV, TV Pirveli, and Formula – have refused to air, features a collage of photos of representatives of several civil society organizations and other individuals against the background of the phrase “Say no to the moral degradation of society.”
“The video turns the individuals depicted in it into the targets of hate groups and incites violence against them, posing a threat to their personal safety, which has already been demonstrated on numerous occasions, including in the recent past,” TI Georgia says in its September 20 statement.
Each of the above media outlets was fined GEL 5000 (approximately USD 1830) for not airing the ad. The media cited the ad’s “non-compliance with the law” as the reason for their refusal to air it.
When Mtavari was fined, the TV’s lawyer argued that according to the law, the political ad must support a political figure or party or obstruct another, whereas the GD’s ad targets non-political individuals “who are neither political subjects nor political subjects registered with the Central Election Commission,” lawyer Tamta Muradashvili said on September 12, following ComCom’s decision to fine Mtavari.
According to TI-Georgia, the fined TV channels have appealed the decision of ComCom and the court to the higher court. However, on September 19, the ComCom heard the issue once again and issued another administrative offence statement against the above TV companies. “It is expected that the court will impose on them another penalty of not less than GEL 10 000 each,” TI-Georgia says.
The watchdog also notes that among the individuals displayed in GD’s ad are representatives of TI-Georgia and Georgia’s European Orbit- watchdogs, which will be observing the upcoming parliamentary elections on October 26.
“We believe that the inclusion of representatives from these organizations in the Georgian Dream election video marks the continuation of the ruling party’s coordinated and planned attacks against local monitoring organizations and intends to cause reputational damage to monitoring organizations,” the watchdog cotes. “Meanwhile, the Communications Commission and the country’s decisions deliver a financial blow to critical media outlets,” the statement adds.
According to the statement, both TI-Georgia and Georgia’s European Orbit filed complaings with the ComCom , requesting it to remove GD’s ad in their current forms from the broadcasting networ. Georgia’s European Orbit also appealed to the Central Election Commission (CEC).
TI-Georgia urges the ruling party “to cease its discreditation campaign against monitoring organizations and enable critical media outlets to continue operating throughout the pre-election period without interruptions.”
It also urges the pro-government media “to stop participating in discrediting campaigns against monitoring organizations and to remove the aforementioned footage from the air.”
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