January 1-31, 2016

Fourth report           

Monitored channels: Rustavi 2, Imedi, Public Broadcasting (GPB), Maestro, Tabula, and GDS (main evening news programs).

For methodology of monitoring see: http://mdfgeorgia.ge/geo/view_news/415.

Following trends were identified as a result of monitoring key news programs during the period of January 1-31.

Priority topics

Due to difficult meteorological conditions in the country in January, heavy snowfall and difficulties caused by the emergency situation were among the common priority issues for all news programs. Besides the heavy snow, GEL exchange rate, gas deficit, negotiations between the Ministry of Energy and Russian company, Gazprom, investigation of the assassination of the Prosecutor, Vakhtang Kiria and accusations of corruption against high rank government officials by Aleksandre Elisashvili, member of the Tbilisi local municipality were also on the list of priority issues on monitored TV channels in January.

It should be noted that from January 1^st to 10^th, news program was not aired on GDS, which is not reflected in the assessment of priority and neglected topics of the TV channel throughout this period.

In January the similarities were identified between news programs of Rustavi 2, Imedi and Tabula in respect with placing priority issues in the information network; different trends were noticed in the schedules of the GPB and GDS channels in this respect.

On January 8th Rustavi 2, Imedi and Tabula news programs covered the fact of bringing lawsuit against the member of Tbilisi municipality Aleko Elisashvili and journalist Eliso Kiladze initiated by Eka Beselia, the chair of the Parliament’s Human Rights Committee as the second and third spots in the first block, while GPB covered it only in the second block as the sixth plot.

Different trend was revealed on January 13th in the news program on Maestro in respect with placing priority issues in the information network. On January 13^th the monitored television channels gave priority to the visit of ‘Socar’ representatives to Tbilisi and to the negotiations with the Russian company ‘Gazprom’ on the purchase of additional gas supply. In the programs of Rustavi 2, GPB and Imedi the topic was covered in the first spot of the first block, while Tabula showed it after the spot on the attack against their journalists, as a second spot of the first block. On January 13^th Maestro’s news program reported on Barak Obama’s farewell speech at the congress and the end of his presidency as a priority issue, while the visit of ‘Socar’ representatives and negotiations with Russian “Gazprom” were covered under the sixth spot of the first block. See table  #1.

On January 8^th the signing of the election code by the president and the criticism related to the election law was covered in the first spot of the first block on ‘Tabula’ and ‘Imedi’ channels, while Rustavi 2 and GPB covered this topic only in the fifth spot of the first and second blocks. Unlike other television channels, Maestro’s news program dedicated its fourteenth spot of the second block to this topic. The first spot of the program ‘Contact’, Maestro on January 8th started with the news on smuggling Van Dake’s painting.

On January 11^th the priority topic of monitored new programs was the staffing the election list of the ruling political party ‘Georgian Dream’. Imedi and GPB aired this topic as the first spot of the first block and Rustavi 2 - as the fourth spot. Maestro covered this topic in the seventh spot of the first block and GDS – in the ninth spot of the second block.

On January 15^th Jokia Bodokia’s statement claiming that his 11-year sentence was linked to Bidzina Ivanishvili and the project Panorama Tbilisi and that for reducing his sentence he was offered to share the responsibility with the former Vice-mayor Aleksandre Margishvili was covered by all television channels except GDS as the first spot of the news programs. GDS presented this news in the ninth spot of the second block. On January 15^th the GDS first spot of the first block covered the initiative of the Ministry of Health for monitoring beauty salons, and the second spot was related to the draft law on children living and working on the streets.

Table #1

Trends of covering political topics

Following trends were identified in respect of coving political topics as a result of assessing monitored TV channels: GPB, Imedi and GDS had the highest rate of spots covering government’s activities.

On January 5^th only Imedi had a spot covering the Education Ministry’s initiative for the prevention of physical violence at kindergartens.

GPB covered information that government adopted one-year plan on quality control of medicines;

Only Imedi and GPB covered the visit of Georgian parliamentary delegation to Latvia;

Only GDS covered the news about the project initiated by the Ministry of Health for monitoring of beauty salons.

Mentioned channels devoted less of their broadcasting time to TV spots with the government criticism.

In the month of January, Rustavi 2 and Tabula had the highest rate of spots that were critical to the government and covered activities of the opposition.  The spots that were dedicated to the actions of the opposition included initiatives of “United National Movement’, as well as activities of the ‘New Political Center’ and ‘Free Democrats’.

In the month of January GDS had the highest intensity of spots that were critical to the activities of the opposition.  The covered topics also included news related to activities of the previous government and criticism of the opposition National Movement activities. On January 14^th the new program at 20:30 was allocated for studio interview with Goga Khaindrava. The interview was related to the film titled “9+1”, being directed by Goga Khaindrava that provided fiction screening of widely known and unknown actions that happened during the previous government. 

Diagram #1

Omitted Topics

The Gazprom Issue. One of the priority topics of January news programs was the diversification of gas suppliers and negotiations over the purchase of gas supply from the Russian company, Gazprom. The negotiations with the Russian side were taking place along with the protests of the opposition and non-governmental sector.

On January 11th, only Rustavi 2 devoted airtime to broadcast the comments of Official Baku on the diversification processes. The Azerbaijan side expressed its dissatisfaction about the negotiations with Gazprom and noted that such development of events would have a negative impact on Tbilisi-Baku relations.

On January 14, non-governmental organizations’ protest against entering into negotiations with Gazprom and the political aspects of purchasing gas from Russia as well as the opposition’s’ demand for the visit of Minister of Energy to the parliament were broadcast by all Georgian channels but Maestro.  See table #2.

Table #2

On January 13, only Rustavi 2, Imedi and GPB allocated their airtime for discussing the majority’s dissatisfaction with the incompatibility between the interpretations made by the Ministry of Energy regarding the negotiations with Gazprom and the Energy Minister’s statements.

On January 15^th, only Rustavi 2 and Tabula included the demands of Free Democrats and United National Movement for the documents disclosure of the negotiations with Gazprom in their news broadcasting.

On January 22, Maestro was an only channel to have neglected the unsuccessful conclusion of the negotiations initiated by the Georgian side with Gazprom in Vienna and Georgian side’s refusal on the monetization of the gas supply allotted to Armenia. See table #3.

Table #3

The case of Pardon Commission. In December, among the number of main neglected topics was the Former Chairman of the Pardon Commission, Aleko Elisashvili’s allegations of corruption against high rank government officials. Elisashvili accused the Chairwoman of the Human Rights Committee of the Parliament, Eka Beselia and the Vice-speaker of the parliament, Manana Kobakhidze of corruption and putting him under pressure in the means of freeing the convicts of so called ‘’Cocaine Case’’.

All channels covered the above-mentioned issue. However, it must be noted that only Rustavi 2 reported on Aleko Elisashvili’s distrust expressed to the Prosecutor’s Office on January 7th.

On January 14^th, Rustavi 2 and GDS were the only two channels to have reported on Aleko Elisashvili’s demand to Prosecutorial Council for suspending Eka Beselia’s authority.

On January 15^th, the Editor of ‘’Kronika +’’, Eliso Kiladze’s statement about the possibility of disseminating a video footage showing personal lives of Aleko Elisashvili and Zviad Koridze was the twelfth spot in Maestro’s first block and the fifth spot in Rustavi 2’s first block. On the same day, January 15^th, only Rustavi 2 broadcast the human rights advocate, Nika Memanishvili’s testimony given to the Prosecutor’s Office. In the sixth spot in Rustavi 2’s first block, Nika Memanishvili announced the Prosecutor’s office and journalists about the existence of the documents confirming the accusations against Kobakhidze and Beselia.

In January, GDS and Maestro were the two channels to have neglected most of significant topics.

The inter-party opposition group. On January 4th, all channels excluding Maestro and Tabula broadcast the interparty opposition group calls on meeting with the prime minister. Nevertheless, Tabula included this event as the fourth spot of its first block in the January 5 news. The interparty opposition group was calling on the cancellation of the majoritarian system and the holding of 2016 parliamentary elections according to the proportional system.

Due to lively public interest in the topic, Rustavi 2 and Tabula once again included the interparty opposition group’s demands in their program schedules on January 11^th. It is rather noteworthy that on January 12^th, Maestro and GDS allocated their program time on the topic only after the prime minister expressed his willingness to meet the representatives of the interparty opposition group and parties started preparing for the meeting.

Zviad Kvachantiradze’s case.

On January 19th, Rustavi 2 and Tabula devoted the fourth and fifth spots of their first news block to parliamentary majority Leader, Zviad Kvachantiradze, who caused the damage worth $16 000 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. The story was based on the article published in ‘’Kartuli Gazeti’’, which emphasized the absence of documents about conceding the damage caused by Zviad Kvachantiradze’s car accident. State agencies expressed reluctance to comment on this issue and other channels failed to broadcast it. See table #4

Table #4

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s (PACE) evaluation regarding Gigi Ugulava. Maestro did not cover the PACE newly elected President, Pedro Agramunt’s announcement. In his welcome speech, the PACE president referred to Tbilisi’s former Mayor, Gigi Ugulava as a political prisoner, which was met with sharp criticism by the Georgian government representatives. Rustavi 2, GPB and GDS reported the event on January 25th and Imedi – on January 26h. See table #5.

Table #5

Report of Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. On January 13th GDS and Maestro failed to cover Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights report. The document discussed the problems of judicial system in Georgia and the current situation in the media, more specifically, the case of Rustavi 2. Council of Europe report reiterated the importance of supporting media diversity in the context of 2016 parliamentary elections.

Gardabani elections. Prior to Gardabani governor’s elections, Maestro and GDS reported about the confrontation between the opposition and the government over special polling stations on January 25th while Rustavi 2, Imedi, GPB and Tabula broadcast the event only on January 27th a day before the elections. The reason for the confrontation was the decision to hold Gardabani governor’s elections in the special polling stations. The opposition deemed such running of the elections to be a potential threat of fraud.

On January 29^th, all channels except Maestro and GDS devoted their airtime to report on the flaws in Gardabani governor’s election and the vote counting procedures identified by the third sector.

Tbilisi City Hall firing TbilService Group employees. Only Rustavi 2 reported the fact of firing three TbilService Group employees from Tbilisi city Hall on January 8th. Tbilisi City Hall fired three and warned 60 TbilService Group employees 8 days after holding a protest for the request of salary increase.

Independent topics

In January, Rustavi 2 and Maestro were the leaders in terms of reporting on independent topics.

Rustavi 2 broadcast an independent topic such as the possible danger of leaving 55 beneficiaries without funding in the House of Social Therapy. The report noted that foreign non-governmental organizations, funders of the beneficiaries were going to cut the aid off while the state support of the house was only 11 GEL a day.

Among the broadcast independent topics, Rustavi 2 covered the issue of terminating the funding for the Veterans’ Hospital as the tenth spot in the second block on January 12th.

The independent topics covered by Maestro in January included the stories about the residents of Chokhatauri sports school, changing existing regulations in Akhalgori and NATO establishing a special division to combat Russian propaganda.

On January 11^th, Maestro devoted the sixth part of its first block news to the vulnerable families living without energy and water supply in the former sports school of Chokhatauri. On January 26^th, Maestro covered the story of simplifying the pass regulations in De facto South Ossetia. On January 28^th, the program, ‘’Contact’’ devoted the fifth spot of its first block, with the name of ‘’NATO and USA against Russia’’, to NATO’s plan to establish a special division to prevent Russian propaganda.

On January 14^th, Imedi as well reported on the issue of occupied territory from Dvani. The eighth spot of the second block was devoted to a citizen who dismantled his house because of so called borders and placed his house within the Georgian borders imposed by the occupation regime. 

See Timeline

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