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Limiting Air time for “Pre-Election Campaign Period”

February 22, 2008
Nona Suvariani, Tbilisi
Georgian Regional TV Companies are getting ready for up-coming parliamentary elections. Already they are thinking about what financial benefits they will derive. There has been a move by the Association of Regional TV Stations when they petitioned to Georgian Parliament to abolish the requirement of providing free political TV-ads.

Specifically, the law stipulates that TV Stations shall provide free-of-charge 90-second political advertisements every three hours of time the station is on the air. Regional TV Companies claim that similar regulation reduces the amount of commercial time and cuts into their bottom line. If the law still requires them to transmit free ads, the expenses should be paid from Georgian budget to compensate them. The law dealing with the issue should take into consideration similar obligations under the Charter of Georgian Public TV.


TV Companies “Rustavi 2” and “Mze” were the first to petition the parliament with it similar concerns of the financial disadvantage of having to provide free air time. However, in their petition they only requested that the amount of time devoted to free political ads be from 90 to 30 seconds on every 3 hours of broadcast time.

Eliso Chapidze, a journalist said that TV Companies had the complete right to petition to the Parliament about this issue. In spite of the fact that they are private legal entities, however, she thinks that there are two sides to the question. 

She explains, ”When the parliament enacted the law on the provision of free commercial time at the initiative of the majority party, they claimed that it would help to improve the situation, meaning political parties would not have to look for money to fund their campaigns.
 
“In this particular situation when parliamentary election is approaching and Georgian TV media is not balanced, I think that private TV Companies as well as the Parliament must avoid discussing and introducing various amendments. Such changes might raise some issues for speculation.  The Georgian TV Media is not balanced at the present time and they are more prone to present the government’s position. This is turn has the potential to create an environment that will be even tenser than what it is for now.”

Ia Antadze, another Georgian journalist also stresses the significance of social marketing aids. Both social and political ads are very important for Georgian society. Therefore they should not be sacrificed for the benefit of private TV Companies.

“Commercial TV Stations have lot of time for advertising and they can have much profit. Social ads are also important for the society, and it does not matter whether the timing is pre or post election period. Georgia faces many unresolved social problems.  Public interest should be the most important element for everyone, as well as for the TV stations. In addition to that social needs, the population should be given the opportunity to become acquainted with all the political parties and their platforms. It is an informed democracy that counts when the vote is cast and counted,” stated Ia Antadze.

Tamar Chikovani, a journalist states the request of the TV Companies is “a new sort of political game” because of free political advertising was envisaged by law. She recalls how during the presidential elections only two candidates were in the position to make use paid political air time.

“I well remember how a 30 second spot on “Rustavi 2” and “Mze” cost 15 thousand USD. It is incredible to spend so much money only on TV advertising alone during the pre-election campaign. I do not think that the envisaged free time could damage TV Companies financially. If they would reduce or cancel the free time for political than political parties would then not have time to properly promote their activities and introduce their programs during the pre-election campaign period.”

Tamar Chikovani thinks that everything can be envisaged under Georgian legislation. However, if we want to transparent democratic the law should not be amended at this time.

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