NGOs Respond to the Statement of the Georgian National Communications Commission Concerning Conflict of Interests

The Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) with its December 2011, 14 statement strongly disagrees with the assessment of NGOs regarding the conflict of interests of the GNCC chairperson. Furthermore, the statement also notes that the company Magi Style Media “produces and places advertising”, while “placement of advertising is not regulated by the Georgian National Communications Commission”.

We believe that the noted statement of the commission fails to clearly explain the field of work of Magi Style Media and the Commission’s powers with regard to placement of advertising in television broadcasting. More specifically, the statement does not specify where the company is placing advertising and whether the Commission is able to influence unlawful placement of advertising in any way.

Therefore, the civil monitoring group of GNCC addresses the Commission with the request to elaborate to public on the following:

Does Magi Style Media place advertisement in television broadcasting?
Does GNCC have an obligation to control and reveal facts of violation of placement of commercials by television broadcasters and undertake further actions?
Did GNCC use the noted authority (take further actions in response to violations of advertisement time limit) without submission of an application by an interested party?

We believe that objective and impartial work of GNCC is extremely important for the development of TV media in the country. Furthermore, it is impossible to fulfill the noted objective without responding to questions and assessments of NGOs concerning conflict of interests of the GNCC chairperson.

The monitoring group has been implementing monitoring of GNCC’s practice since June 1, 2011, under the auspices of the project Civil Monitoring for Improvement of TV Media Environment. The project is implemented by Levan Mikeladze Foundations and Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association with support of the Open Society – Georgia.