Caucasus Research Resource Center Published Final Results of Election Media Monitoring
The presentation was held at Radisson Blue Iveria Hotel. The monitoring was conducted on news of six TV stations covering the 2010 municipal election campaign. The monitoring period runs from April 26 to June 6, 2010.
The presentation of the survey was attended by Mr Jamie McGoldrick, UNDP Resident Representative in Georgia and Ambassador Per Erklund, Head of the EC Delegation to Georgia.
According to Koba Turmanidze, Head of CRRC Georgia office out of all six monitored TV companies Real TV was most unbalanced and biased. The Georgian Public Broadcasting (GPB) was the most neutral.
"According to the statistics Real TV failed most to adhere to standards, it cannot be named as PR, the channel directly supported and praised Gigi Ugulava (ruling party mayoral candidate) while negative and unbalanced information was aired about opposition candidates," Koba Turmanidze said.
In addition, according to him, the negative tone of coverage in regard to the ruling party candidate was observed on GPB out of all national TV channels.
"Rustavi 2 constantly talked good about Ugulava, let alone Imedi TV continually praising Ugulava. Maestro and Kavkasia TVs provided a totally different picture. Gigi Ugulava was being censured while the opposition candidates were neutrally covered," Koba Turmanidze pointed out.
"These elections are generally recognized as better conducted than any previous one though it's evident media, during the recent elections, made mistakes," Mr Jamie McGoldrick said reporting to Media.ge.
According to Ambassador Per Erklund through the projects of the kind EU is trying to develop media and make it more unbiased.
Speaking at the presentation at Radisson Hotel Ambassador Per Erklund said monitoring is conducive to the consolidation of media's social links with the society and it supports the formulation of professional and independent journalism. The monitoring results provide unbiased information to the citizens to help them in decision-making.
The results of the monitoring were presented in a weekly program aired on GPB. The civil society representatives and Media pundits took part in the discussions.
The quantitative results of the monitoring were posted on the Civil.ge online edition.
"In Georgia everyone understands very well hat an important role media is playing in the democratic process such as elections. Following the completion of the media monitoring over election campaign we had several meetings with the representatives of civil society and TV companies. Following their response and comments we are going to elaborate future plans," Mr Jamie McGoldrick said.
Media monitoring of the election campaign is a part of a far more spacious initiative. Its goal is to enhance independence and professionalism of media and provide the population with balanced and neutral information. The project whose budget amounts to EUR 500,000 is funded by EU and is being carried out with the UNDP support.
The presentation of the outcome of the monitoring was attended by civil society representatives and media experts having taken part in a weekly program Media Monitor on GPB to discuss weekly results of the monitoring. Experts such as Lasha Tugushi, Editor-in-chief, daily Rezonansi, Professor Giga Zedania, Ilia State University, historian Lasha Bakradze, sociologist Iago Kachkachishvili, writer Dato Turashvili, media expert Irakli Tabliashvili were involved in the project.
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