Broadcasters Agree to Amendments to be Made to Code of Conduct for Broadcasters

The broadcasters have agreed to the initiative proposed by the Civic Development Institute (CDI) in regard to the amendments to be made to the Code of Conduct for Broadcasters. The amendment implies the expansion of the category of the individuals to enjoy a right to lodge complaints to the self-regulatory body in case of unethical reporting on juvenile-related issues.

According to the Code of Conduct for Broadcasters being currently applicable for the breach of standards an individual can lodge a complaint to the broadcaster’s self-regulatory body and that individual can be "any individual who is concerned with, or has been mentioned in a program, or in a decision by the broadcaster self-regulatory body".
Following the CDI proposal the aforementioned article should be expanded and include the organizations whose activities aim at protecting juveniles’ interests.

In line with the Law on Broadcasting the Georgian National Communications Commission, based on the broadcasting license holders’ consent, is entitled to make amendments to the Code. This very consent was attained by CDI at the final stage of the project Promoting Professional and Ethical Reporting of Children Related Issues – Media Monitoring being carried out in partnership with UNICEF. The results of the partner project were presented on November 22, 2011 at Caravan Literary Art-Café. The running period of the project March – October, 2011.

As a result of the monitoring CDI found 40 cases of violation of standards when reporting on juvenile-related issues. The CDI lawyer deemed 23 out of 40 cases necessary to appeal. Five complaints were lodged toRustavi2 self-regulatory body, for complaints to Imedi and GPB per each, CDI had a complaint over three TV reports by Real TV, two TV stories were appealed at Kavkasia TV, and single complaint at Trialeti and Maestro TVs per each.

According to the CDI board chairperson Ia Antadze when reporting criminal and social issues in the appealed TV stories the children were being identified, hence breaching international standards. “It is also inadmissible to produce the material that might psychologically affect the child, the cases of the kind have been found,” said Ia Antadze reporting to Media.ge after summarizing the project.

Only four TV companies upheld the complaints, the rest considered CDI had no authority to lodge complaints. “This very experience made us propose amendments to the Code. It’s unthinkable that UNICEF and similar organizations have no right to make complaints,” said Antadze having already held consultations with the broadcasters as well as the Commission over the amendments to be made. Both parties, said Antadze, are ready to, just some procedural details need to be clarified. Only Real.TV’s response is unclear. The company has not provided either consent or denial. “According to the law the broadcasters consent is obligatory but the law says nothing about the number of broadcasters needed. Rather importantly all of the TV companies are ready to launch the mechanism to provide the coverage of the issue in full adherence to standards,” Ia Antadze pointed out.

The main problem with the coverage of children-related issues, said Tamar Rukhadze, head of Maestro TV news service, arises when reporting on social issues.

“I, as a producer, sometimes think that the identification of a child is more beneficial to the child,” said Tamar Rukhadze reporting to Media.ge. ”Quite frequently we are holding consultations with the organization working on the issue. For instance, should we feature the child suffering from poor social conditions? In line with standards the child should not be identified, and we act upon that,” she said.

For regional broadcasters, said Natia Kuprashvili, Executive Director, Georgian Association for Regional Broadcasters (GARB), non-identifying the juvenile is more difficult for than for national broadcasters.

“Regional broadcasting spreads on a local territory within which everybody is acquainted with another, and the person being spoken about is familiar. Therefore the reporting on children-related issues is being handled with care,” said Natia Kuprashvili. For regional media, she said, UNICEF conducted special trainings all of the TV companies were present at.

When summarizing the project Deputy Representative Nada Marasovic, UNICEF thanked the TV companies for the cooperation and pointed out that when covering children-related issues it’s important to focus on students, in addition to raising acting journalists’ awareness.

Journalism students should have already mastered the standards related to the work on juvenile issues, said Nada Marasovic.

Reporting on children-related issues has been taught at the faculty of journalism atTbilisiIvaneJavakhishviliStateUniversityfor the third year now. According to Mariam Gersamia of TSU the interest to the aforementioned topic is keen.

“Very often,” said Mariam Gersamia,” students choose reporting on children-related issues as a thesis for bachelor’s degree, this is to say, future journalists strive to learn more about ethical coverage of the issue. Manuals have been published in the Georgian language about the reporting on children’s issues. Within the scale of the aforementioned project CDI published a collection of international and national standards for media coverage of children-related issues.