EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight - Television Plays a Prominent Role in Georgia’s Municipal Election Campaign

EURASIA INSIGHT

TELEVISION PLAYS A PROMINENT ROLE IN GEORGIA’S MUNICIPAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Molly Corso 10/03/06

Amid the drama of spy scandal, Georgia is preparing to hold municipal elections October 5. The vote is being billed as an important test of strength for President Mikheil Saakashvili’s governing National Movement Party.

Many outside analysts, including Russian observers, have argued that the recent arrest of four Russian military officers for espionage was designed to play into the government’s election strategy. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. How those events will affect the election results cannot be predicted, but media has played a central role in the crisis. All steps in the dispute – from arrest to release -- were nationally televised, including the evacuation of Russian diplomats’ and soldiers’ families for "security concerns." [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Television stands to continue playing a key campaign role in the final days leading up to the vote. The opposition is planning a made-for-television event on the eve of the elections in association with the espionage case. Before Georgia handed the four officers over for return to Russia on October 1, Conservative Party leader Koba Davitashvili, a candidate for Tbilisi’s City Council, called on all political parties to form a chain around the Russian embassy on October 4 "so that none of the Russian Duma politicians entertain the illusion that they can find a force in Georgia that will abandon our independence and cooperate with Russia on this issue," Kavkaz-Press reported.

For now, the odds appear strong that such coverage will work to the government’s advantage. A recent report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) found that Georgian television stations have already given government programs and special projects extensive coverage during the election campaign.

While the Georgian media has technically adhered to the legal guidelines for political campaigns during election periods, the OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission found that television stations, particularly Georgian Public Broadcasting and the privately owned Rustavi-2, dedicated considerable coverage – largely neutral or positive – to government programs and special government projects, such as the remodeling of Tbilisi’s subway system, over the past 40 days. Newspapers have offered the most critical coverage of the ruling party during the election campaign, the report found.

The 2006 Municipal Elections in Georgia: Interim Report 1 was prepared by the OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission between September 8 and September 27, and does not address implications of stations’ coverage of the Russian officers, who were arrested on September 27.

According to media observers, while the extensive coverage of government activities and the arrests of the alleged Russian spies have possibly influenced viewers, the bigger issue is the lack of independent news investigations.

"Of course it is not good that all the programs and reports [are about the ruling party]," Magda Popiashvili, director of the Georgian Media Club, said. "But journalists have to report on the news…to a certain extent [the lack of balance] is due to the inertia of the opposition."

Rustavi-2 producer Akaki Gogichaishvili, who worked as a reporter on the station’s former influential newsmagazine 60 Minutes, argues that the lack of investigation into government programs and promises has made media a de facto tool of the administration.
Election coverage "illustrates how heavily they [journalists] are dependent on politicians and the government," Gogichaishvili said. "They do not create an agenda – the media itself. They are very heavily dependent upon the agenda the government itself offers them."

Gogichaishvili noted that there is no indication that journalists are being forced to report only about the government, however. "[It] is just because of low professionalism, low quality," he said. "They do not go and find news for themselves. They do not go out and talk to people; they do not go to businessmen."

Tamara Zhvania, director of the Institute for Fair Elections and Democracy, agreed that the lack of professionalism in the media has allowed the government to use journalists as an administrative resource.

The government, however, maintains that some media, especially newspapers, are misrepresenting the government’s achievements. During an emotional speech on September 25, Saakashvili lambasted journalists for ignoring the successes of the government and accused them of "provincialism and a lack of education."

This was not the first time over the past few months that Saakashvili has attacked the Georgian press. The president also slammed Georgian television stations for broadcasting troop locations and other operational details during the July 25-27 mission to root out rebel militia leader Emzari Kvitsiani from the Kodori Gorge, a strip of territory in the breakaway region of Abkhazia held by Georgia.

A survey released by Transparency International on September 28 reported that 50 percent of 109 journalists surveyed nationwide believe that the government’s attitude toward the media has deteriorated since the 2003 Rose Revolution. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The government’s decision to limit press access to the Kodori Gorge only reinforced the view of some Georgian journalists that the administration favors coverage by Rustavi-2, a station long viewed as a government ally. The station broadcast one-on-one interviews with senior government officials during the operation, an opportunity not extended to other media outlets. One journalist from Rustavi managed to enter the gorge, while others were denied permission.

Gogichaishvili agrees that Rustavi-2 did receive special treatment during the Kodori operation, but adds that the station’s relationship with the government is not as strong as it once was.

The decision of four journalists to leave the station after General Director Nika Tabatadze was fired on August 26 has changed the relationship, he said. Rustavi-2 "has had [an unfair advantage]. I agree," he said, but added that most of that advantage hinged on "the ties that they [journalists] have developed through [the] years, through the revolution."

Gogichaishvili dismissed reports that Tabatadze was fired due to "miscommunication" with Georgia’s political leaders. Tabatadze and other Rustavi-2 representatives did not make themselves available for comment.

Rustavi-2’s perceived pro-government stance blew over into the political arena in July, when opposition parties decided to boycott the station for its coverage of the trial of Interior Ministry officials charged with the murder of banker Sandro Girgvliani. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive.] In response, members of the governing party boycotted the other leading media station, Imedi. The boycott lasted for a little less than a month.

While the boycott gave the opposition more access to national media than they have had in the past, Maia Mikashavidze, dean of journalism at the Georgian Institute for Public Affairs, believes any politicization of the press is bad for journalism. "This is not supporting the development of freedom of speech," she said.

Although Mikashavidze believes that Georgia’s quality of journalism is improving, news coverage still requires work, she said. "Journalism [in Georgia] is more about position, more about civic duty and political opinions than fact."

Others believe that the answer is greater protection for civil rights. "We have a problem with freedom of speech – journalists should be able to speak about what they want," Popiashvili said. "I think that today we need to make sure that the things that are happening [against journalists] are stopped. The problem is not standards; it is that they don’t have any freedoms."

Giorgi Jalabadze, a journalist with the non-governmental media development organization Internews [Internews receives funding from the Open Society Institute. EurasiaNet.org is run under the auspices of the Central Eurasia Project of the Open Society Institute.], agreed that there is still a problem with journalists being pressured. While he noted that the situation has improved, the situation in the regions, where cases of physical assault have been recorded, is still "complicated," he said.

"Personally, I believe that after the Rose Revolution, journalists experienced a little euphoria, but then realized that the new authorities were still authorities who were not very eager to give out information," Jalabadze said. "Journalists still have to struggle to get information."

Editor’s Note: Molly Corso is a freelance reporter and photojournalist based in Tbilisi.

The Central Eurasia Project aims, through its website, meetings, papers, and grants, to foster a more informed debate about the social, political and economic developments of the Caucasus and Central Asia. It is a program of the Open Society Institute-New York. The Open Society Institute-New York is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that promotes the development of open societies around the world by supporting educational, social, and legal reform, and by encouraging alternative approaches to complex and controversial issues.

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