Search results : 17

The Parliament of Georgia has adopted amendments in the 2005 broadcasting law (see: IRIS 2013-8:1/23) that would soon change the method of funding the country's national and regional public broadcasters. Currently, the law stipulates that Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) is to obtain at least 0.14% of the national GDP. With the dramatic growth of the Georgian GDP since 2022, the funding for GPB has jumped from GEL 69.6 million in 2021 to 110.3 million (or EUR 38.2 million) in 2024. The note to the bill explained the proposed change by saying that the current increase has not been conditioned...

On 22 December 2022, the national Parliament of Georgia adopted a draft law “On amendments to the law on broadcasting”. The 2004 law has been amended several times (see IRIS 2005-7/24, IRIS 2011-10:1/22, IRIS 2013-8:1/23); this time the amendments were aimed at achieving compliance of the Georgian legislation with the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). Most of the amendments relate to the definitions of the key notions of the law, including the activity of the audiovisual (AV) media regulatory authority, the “authorisation” procedures for activities in the...

On 14 February 2023, the “People’s Power” movement, an offshoot of the “Georgian Dream” ruling party, submitted a draft law “on the transparency of foreign influence”. According to the bill, a register of foreign-influenced agents would be created by the Ministry of Justice, which would “monitor” the activity of such agents. Liability for a failure to register or present relevant declarations would entail a fine of 25,000 Lari (about EUR 8 900). Article 2 of the draft law considered that “agents of foreign influence”...

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found a violation of the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), on account of the administrative‑offence proceedings and the resulting sanctions for disseminating images on social media and on the packaging of condoms deemed by the domestic courts in Georgia to be unethical advertising. The ECtHR found no demonstration of the existence of a pressing social need to interfere with the advertising and it considered the prioritisation of views on ethics of the members of the Georgian Orthodox Church...

In a case about access to information, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) clarified that the right to freedom of expression and information, as guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), is only applicable when a set of conditions are fulfilled. The case of Studio Monitori and Others v. Georgia is one of the cases following the judgment of the Grand Chamber in Magyar Helsinki Bizottság v. Hungary (IRIS 2017-1/1) to test the limits of the right of access to public documents and the applicability of Article 10 ECHR (see also Bubon v. Russia, 7 February,...