Activity Details (ID# 7539)

Activity Synopsis

The objective of the mission was to review the draft Broadcasting Law, as revised by the above-mentioned working group following a previous expertise conducted in 2003. The purpose of this review was to ensure that the draft complied with the Council of Europe standards in the area of broadcasting, as defined in particular in the European Convention on Transfrontier Television and different Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers concerning the independence and functions of public service broadcasting and broadcasting regulatory authorities. 

The extensive working sessions held on 24 May with the working group made it possible to review in detail all the provisions of the draft Law. The most important issue discussed in this context concerned the specific remit of public service broadcasting in the areas of information, education, culture and entertainment, as opposed to commercial broadcasting, and the possible ways of securing an appropriate level of funding in order to discharge this remit properly. The experts suggested that the future public service broadcasting organisation to be established under the new law should be financed through a combination of public resources (subsidies from the State budget until a licence fee system can be established in Georgia once the economic conditions have improved) and advertising revenues, on the understanding that this latter source of revenue should be subject to certain limitations, in order not to prejudice the development of private broadcasters. A specific wording along these lines was suggested to the working group.

Other issues discussed during the above working sessions concerned the criteria against which the broadcasting regulatory authority to be established under the new law would grant licences to private broadcasters (the experts expressed strong reservations regarding the idea of allocating licences to those making the highest financial bid, considering that priority should be given instead to the content of the offers in terms of programming), the financing and accountability of this new regulator, the regulation of media concentrations, the renewal of licences granted to broadcasters, etc.

In addition to the above working sessions, the experts also had meetings with the Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Finance and the Head of the Committee responsible for the media at the Georgian Parliament. All three interlocutors welcomed the assistance provided by the Council of Europe for the drafting of the new law while stressing that, once this law had come into force, an equally important question would be that of its implementation, in particular as concerns the transformation of Georgian State television into a genuine independent public service broadcasting organisation. The assistance of the Council of Europe for the training of journalists was specifically requested in this context. A specific matter which will deserve particular attention is whether the Georgian authorities will be willing to provide the new public service broadcaster with adequate financial resources in order to offer diversified quality programmes catering for the needs of all groups in society, including minority groups.
 

In the light of the comments made by the Council of Europe experts, the draft Law will be revised by the working group by the end of May and will be subsequently forwarded to the government in order to initiate the formal procedure for its examination and subsequent adoption in Parliament. During the meeting with the Head of the Parliamentary Committee responsible for the media, the latter expressed an interest in the continued assistance of the Council of Europe. 

Members of the working group established under the Georgian National Communications Commission to prepare the draft Law 

Dr Werner Rumphorst, Director of the Department of Legal Affairs, European Broadcasting Union (Geneva)
Ms Carolyn Morrison, former Head of International Broadcasting Policy Branch, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (London)
 

Christophe Poirel, Head of Media Division, Directorate General of Human Rights – DG II