On July 27 the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association held a meeting with journalists in frames of the project Legal Protection of Media. Purpose of the meeting was to identify legislative flaws that hinder journalists the most from working effectively and can be eliminated through legislative amendments.
Local and regional media representatives attended the meeting and discussed the issues that prove to be most problematic in their activity.
Following issues had been identified:
•    transparency of media owners;
•    financial transparency of media outlets;
•    high amount of court fee and litigations terms that are too lengthy;
•    high fees for copying public information, as well as special regulations for acquiring different types of information, such as excerpts from industrial register, certificates from archive, etc;
•    Public access to court sessions, restriction on photo, video and audio recording;
•    broadcaster licensing issues;
•    inability to acquire a soft-copy of public information;
•    issues of protection of journalists’ labor rights;
•    Artificial barriers that journalists are facing with regard to access to public agencies and public sessions.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association is launching active lobbyist campaign with partner-organizations in September 2010. Through meetings, media campaigns and presenting legislative initiatives to the Parliament, GYLA will encourage positive legislative amendments and creation of free, equal and fair environment for journalists.