Region Where State Media Still Exists

Newspapers are sold on almost every crossroads in Batumi in special newspaper stands. National newspapers are brought from Tbilisi at about 1 p.m. everyday and they are quickly sold. Most Batumi-based newspapers however stay on the newspaper stands for weeks.

"The local newspapers are sold only when they announce a major disaster in the country" – Lika, the newspaper vendor, says.

Newspaper Batumis Kronikebi mainly publishes information about the projects implemented by Batumi City Hall; it doesn’t have any other functions, because it was founded by Batumi City Hall. Batumis Kronikebi receives a substantial funding, this year the newspaper got 90,000 GEL from the city budget.

Another newspaper called Adjara is financed from state budget as well, but unlike Batumis Kronikebi it’s funded from the budget of Autonomous Republic of Adjara.

Batumelebi and Adjara P.S. are independent newspapers, after the August 2008 war their circulation was halved. Batumelebi publishes 2,300 copies, 95% of those copies are distributed among subscribers. The owners of the newspaper hired BCG public opinion research company, which conducted survey 6 months ago in order to find out the newspaper’s rating. Editor-in-chief Eter Turadze says Batumelebi competes with national newspapers in the region the only national newspaper that outsells it in Adjara is Tbilisi-based Kviris Palitra.

"Only Batumelebi tries to objectively analyze the facts, other local media outlets fail to do so" – student of journalism faculty Sopo Lortkipanidze says. For her Internet, forums and chats are the only sources of information about the events taking place in the capital.

Interest in the political processes taking place in the country among the Batumi residents is quite high; the main competitor of press here as well as in the rest of the country is television.

Most people walking in Batumi Boulevard every morning discuss the previous night’s debates in talk show called Dialogue. That talk show is the only TV program in Adjara that features debates between politicians and experts. After the talk show ends TV station Channel 25 (which airs the talk show) starts to re-broadcast Tbilisi-based TV company Maestro’s programs. Based on the number of TV viewers’ phone calls one of the founders of Channel 25 Merab Merkviladze believes that talk show Dialogue and re-broadcasting of Maestro’s programming raise his TV station’s rating.

"National TV channels cannot compete with our channel’s night programs" – Merab Merkviladze maintains. However, Channel 25’s signal cannot reach mountainous parts of Adjara. It covers the plains including Black Sea port Poti.

TV station employs 28 people including technicians and security guards. Even now the main source of stable income for that TV station is obituaries. Advertisement accounts for only about 25% of the TV station’s income. The old tax arrears that the TV station has create additional problems. Channel 25 currently wages a legal war with Tax Inspection because of that debt (which amounts to 330,000 GEL).

"We don’t recognize that debt, because they illegally obligated us to pay it" – Merkviladze says, "We won the case in all courts, even in Supreme Court, but the Tax Inspection disregards the court rulings and stubbornly demands that sum. The following court hearing is scheduled to take place in Batumi court".

Merkviladze is also dissatisfied with donor organizations. "Donor organizations show indifference towards the only independent TV station in the region, they don’t cooperate with us" – he says.

Head of nongovernmental organization House of Independent Journalists lawyer Aslan Chanidze believes that "regional media outlets work under unequal conditions, mainly the media outlets are funded by the local government here. Level of public trust essentially depends on who funds this or that media outlet".

This year Adjara TV and Radio Department received a 5 million GEL funding from Adjara government. That broadcaster is still officially a sub-department of local government; its employees are officially considered state employees and they need to fill in property declarations every year. A specially formed Supervisory Board that must work on changing Adjara TV and Radio Department’s status was created 2 years ago.

Up until now the Board limited its output to a few recommendations. Adjara TV station desires to compete with national broadcasters; therefore its news programs feature a lot of information about the events taking place all over the country. Employees of the TV station don’t know the TV channel’s rating; there haven’t been any surveys that would define that rating. Head of news service of that TV company Tsira Abuladze says that according to internal researches the most popular program is the morning program, which is aired only on weekends.

Cable TV network Era will cover all parts of Batumi in two weeks. The network was founded 5 years ago, up until now it’s been broadcasting music videos and films. One week ago the cable network started to air news using subtitles. Morning entertainment program will be aired in 2 weeks and it’s going to be the only competitor of Adjara TV’s morning program in the region.

"There’s no competition between the media outlets in Adjara, hence the low quality of their products. Their priorities are defined without taking into account the public interests. Media has lost public trust here, independent newspapers and TV channels more or less try to be close to their customers. The state-funded media outlets mainly conduct government propaganda rather than serve public interests" – regional correspondent of radio station Liberty Nata Imedaishvili says.

Unfortunately there’s only one radio station operating in Adjara and it’s also owned by the state. Radio station Adjara mainly broadcasts music through its FM frequency with short news program once in 2 hours.

"Regional media environment is deteriorating here, which is a sad tendency" – Batumi resident Eka Zhghenti says.

Adjara Autonomous Republic is comprised of 5 districts. Years ago each district had its own local newspaper. The last regional newspaper that was published by Khelvachauri district authorities was closed down about 2 years ago. Nowadays the people living in mountainous parts of Adjara receive information only from national TV channels.