Page Six to Georgia: Ready or Not, Here We Come

Media baron Ruppert Murdoch's News Corp. appears set to enter Georgia's media market after agreeing in principle to take a stake in a Tbilisi television channel. Georgian media observers have voiced hope that the move will help improve journalism standards and the overall media climate in the Caucasus nation. However, Murdoch critics counter that News Corp.'s move into Georgia could have a negative impact on civil society development.

Under a preliminary agreement signed in late April, News Corp. pledged to purchase shares in Imedi Holdings, operator of the Imedi television channel. Imedi is controlled by Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili. Terms of the deal haven't been disclosed, although several media outlets reported that News Corp. would buy 30 percent of the Georgian station's shares. The deal is not expected to close until June at the earliest.

In comments broadcast on Imedi, Patarkatsishvili hailed the sale as "a very important development for Georgia, which gives us the possibility to increase [international] interest toward our country." News Corp. representatives are far more restrained about the pending deal. Andrew Butcher, vice president of corporate affairs & communications, referred to the purchase as a business arrangement that does not include any plans for active partnership. In a telephone interview from his office in New York, Butcher derided reports that have News Corp. becoming a major stakeholder in Imedi. He said the company's share of Imedi, provided the deal goes through, would be less than half of the widely reported 30 percent figure. Imedi representatives did not return repeated requests for comment on the sale terms.

Media experts in Georgia generally have lauded the move. Maia Mikashavidze, dean of journalism and media management at the Georgian Institute for Public Affairs in Tbilisi, expressed hope that News Corp.'s involvement in Imedi would have a positive impact on Georgia's media environment. "Georgia media badly needs some financial investments [in the mass media sphere]," Mikashavidze told EurasiaNet. "It will put Imedi management now on a business track and hopefully expand and influence its overall operations and, as a result, improve the overall level of the media."

A partnership could also provide some cover for Patarkatsishvili, who in recent months has fallen out with President Mikheil Saakashvili. In March, Patarkatsishvili complained publicly that authorities were pressuring media outlet owners to avoid publishing controversial stories or investigative reports that would cast the government in a bad light. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Allegations of government meddling in media have appeared to increase over the past year. The international non-governmental organization Freedom House has characterized Georgian media as "partly free."

In an interview with the weekly newspaper Georgia Today, Giorgi Targamadze, Imedi's director of public and political programs, insisted that News Corp. would "support fair, accurate and balanced media in Georgia, and will help to the process of democratization in general."

Such rhetoric is unsettling to many media critics in the United States. News Corp.'s premier US entity, Fox News Channel, is widely acknowledged to be politically partisan. Although Fox News purports to be "fair and balanced" numerous studies have shown the channel serves Republican Party interests. The watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, which is generally aligned with Democratic Party interests, has characterized Fox as "the most biased name in news." [For additional information, click here].

Even a Republican-oriented media organization, Accuracy in Media (AIM), does not try to hide the close connection between Fox and the GOP. An item posted on AIM's web site on May 5 commented on a recent study by two economists that showed Fox News' slanted political coverage likely made George W. Bush's disputed victory possible in the 2000 presidential election. The study asserted that "Fox News permanently altered voting patterns in the United States."

"If you are a conservative this is good news indeed," the AIM item commented. [To see the piece, click here].

Robert Greenwald, the director of a 2004 documentary, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, indicated that the imminent arrival of News Corp. in Georgia could hinder development of a key component of civil society -- an independent press that serves as a check against potential government excess. In a telephone interview from his offices in Los Angeles, Greenwald asserted that Murdoch has little time or respect for non- biased reporting by his extensive media holdings. "You see it in the newspapers and continually see it in his personal beliefs," Greenwald said. "He uses his media outlets to further his politics."

Mikashavidze, the journalism expert, suggested that professional standards in Georgia are so low, that any possible bias, real or perceived, introduced by News Corp. could not make things worse. "I spoke with the management of Imedi and they think they will be able to retain control over editorial content," she said. "They will try to get best practices and avoid anything that is against their editorial policy."

Greenwald cautions that it might not be that simple. He noted that in his interviews with former employees of Fox News, there were numerous complaints of heavy-handed pressure from the station's leadership concerning the way news is reported. "They [the management] do not say