Activity Details (ID# 4466)

Activity Synopsis

The general objective of the seminar was to establish the first Georgian Media Council. The short-term aim of the meeting was to present to the participants the draft Media Council's regulations and rules of procedures. These documents were supposed to be discussed and possibly amended before their adoption. 

The technical organisation of the activity was excellent. The participants received a new publication on self-regulation (the first ever published in Georgia) as well as the results of a monitoring exercise on the implementation of ethical norms by media professionals. In addition, the participants received a number of Council of Europe publications in the media field that had been translated into Georgian by the Office of the Council of Europe in Tbilisi.

The debates and discussions were of high-level and generally focused. Soon after the presentation of the Media Council's draft regulations, a strong dissenting opinion was voiced by the Association “Free Press” and the Regional Press Association through a joint statement. These organisations questioned the way the Media Council structure was planned, as well as its future competences. Unfortunately, it became increasingly difficult to discuss these criticisms since the form used by the opponents to the setting-up of the Media Council (a formal joint statement) did not leave enough leeway to a constructive discussion. It therefore became clear that an agreement on the establishment of the Media Council could not be reached before the end of the seminar.

The media widely covered the event; several broadcasters prepared a news package for the main evening news and many journalists covered the seminar in their newspapers.

No questionnaire was prepared or distributed to the participants but generally speaking, it seemed that the seminar was useful to continue the debate on the question of the setting-up of the Media Council in Georgia. It is regrettable that the views expressed by the opponents had not been discussed before the seminar since the divergence of views could have been most probably overcome.

Some changes were made to the programme but did not affect the overall implementation of this activity.

The target group was fully reached since the seminar was extremely well attended.
 

No formal declaration was adopted at the end of the seminar and it was decided to continue the discussions in order to reach an agreement on the setting-up of a Media Council in Georgia.

The publication prepared for the seminar will be used by the schools of journalism in Tbilisi. This important teaching material should raise among media professionals in Georgia the level of awareness of issues concerning self-regulation by the media.
 

Media professionals (owners, editors and journalists), representatives of several national NGOs, representatives of international donor organisations, representatives of the European Commission Delegation, the OSCE Mission and embassies. 

Mr Ian Beales, Media Consultant (United Kingdom)
Mr Urmas Loit, Director of the Estonian Press Council (Estonia)
 

Mr Mario Oetheimer, Media Division, DG2