The international symposium dedicated to South Caucasus information legislation was held at the Tbilisi State University, July 23-26. It was organized by “Deutsche Welle Academy.” During the symposium, the journalists and professors in journalism from the three South Caucasus countries, and the representatives of information-oriented NGOs were talking about the problems in their countries, progress and achievements. The Executive Director of Georgia’s Media Development Foundation, Tamar Khorbaladze, said that Georgia currently has 70 television and radio stations, and 200 print media. However, according to the previous year’s data, 86% of the population gets the information from TV, and only 4% periodically gets information from the Internet. She had recently been in Armenia and was impressed by the development pace of new media in Armenia.
According to Th. Khorbaladze, the new media (news websites) in Armenia and generally, the Information Technology Industry are more developed than in Georgia. “We have to be satisfied with only a few good IT industry professionals, whereas they are very many and qualified in your country.” According to Georgian legislation, the offshore companies cannot established TV stations, but not limited to the right to posting advertisements and financing TV stations, and, taking advantage of legislative loopholes, the offshore companies are able to influence on the television. The most featured “Rustavi 2” channel, which the Georgians consider a great achievement in the news industry because having an anti-government orientation, it has the highest rating 22%, and the owner has been replaced 20 times in 2004-2012.
Mamuka Andguladze, the Head of Information Law Institute, said that the influence of the officials and bureaucrats on the media is felt very little, but since the advertising market is small and is not sufficient to the players of the industry, the media receives “subsidies” from various businessmen and other politicians having their own interest, which spoils the market. “It is clear that other media cannot compete with an oligarch-owned media.” The Chairman of Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression, Ashot Melikyan, presented the current condition of the print media in Armenia. He regretfully mentioned that if until this year, according to “Freedom House” data, we were close to the countries with “Partly Free” media by 61 scores (partly free are considered the countries who have up to 60 scores), and there was hope that we would enter in the row of these countries, this year our condition worsened by once score, and now we are in the list of “Not Free” countries by 62 scores, where we were found in 2002, since closing up of “A-1+” channel. The reason for deterioration of the situation is not legislation or policy course change rather than the maltreatment to the journalists.
Pursuant to the data provided by A. Melikyan, in compared to 2012, the previous year’s physical violence against journalists and pressure against media has been increased, although with regard to information dissemination, the situation has improved. “The year 2011 was a peak with regard to lawsuits against mass media, later on their number went sharply down, the previous year they again grew up; there were 27 lawsuits. This year, so far, seven lawsuit against the media was filed.” The Chairman of “Yeni Nesil” Journalists Union of Azerbaijan, Arif Aliyev, noted that recently a problem has been emerged in Azerbaijan that very little attention is paid to accuracy and impartiality in the media, and the emphasis is placed solely on timeliness. He also drew attention to the fact that currently 11 journalists in his country are in prison for various charges. “The president of Azerbaijan, recently, stated that no journalist was imprisoned in Azerbaijan for defamation and insult, but we all know that these people are imprisoned for their activities, though were judged by different articles.”
He also informed that 5000 media are registered in Azerbaijan, but only 300 of them are working properly. The experience of Germany was interesting, which was presented by the copyright expert, Raphael Grafenburg. He said that if a television company’s rating is increasingly rising and reaches the 30% threshold, then substantiated grounds emerge that the TV Company can somehow influence on the public opinion, which is banned in Germany. To avoid this, various mechanisms have been developed up to the point that they make these channels to broadcast the programs prepared by other companies. Caucasian professionals seated in the hall could not believe that there is no translation error, and with the help of various questions, they were trying to be convinced that they truly understood what was said by the lawyer that the state is applying means so that a TV Company would not excessively high rating.
To the question of “Aravot”, and if, nevertheless, in spite of all mechanisms, the rating of this TV Company continues to grow, what should be done, the Deputy Director of “Deutsche Welle Academy” for Asia and Europe, Bettina Ruigies, answered in confident tone that it would not grow, be sure …
In the photo, during the symposium, from left to right, Tamar Khorbaladze, Arif Aliyev and Mamuka Andguladze
Melania BARSEGHYAN
