Television Plays a Prominent Role in Georgia’s Municipal Election Campaign

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