GNCC Adopts Broadcasters Code of Conduct

Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) adopted on March 12 a legally binding document laying out in details rules of conduct for broadcasters.

Legal status of the 40-page Code of Conduct for Broadcasters triggers major controversy with opponents claiming that its legally binding nature may give the regulator commission to take action against a broadcaster for violation of the document provisions.

Although on the one hand GNCC says that the document is “a normative act,” it also says that the code has “a self-regulatory” functions for broadcasters.

“This self-regulatory mechanism means that neither courts nor the Commission itself are entitled to consider complaints that may be filed by viewers if they think that a broadcaster violated provisions of the Code,” Kakhi Kurashvili, head of the GNCC’s legal department, told journalists on March 12. “Views can file their complaints only to a broadcaster itself and the latter will have to consider the complaint and the decision by a broadcaster on the complaint can not be appealed either to GNCC or court.”

He also said that GNCC’s role in this regard is only limited with study of reports that broadcasters will have to submit to the commission once in year about the complaints filed by viewers if there are any.

Nino Jangirashvili, a founder and director of the Tbilisi-based Kavkasia TV, who is an outspoken critic of the document, says GNCC’s explanation is contradictory in itself, because the code can not be self-regulatory by broadcasters if it has a legally binding nature and the explanation give no guarantee that the document will not serve for taking actions against broadcasters.

Discussions over the document were underway for almost recent four years. The law on broadcasting envisaged passing of the document by GNCC.

The document was passed by GNCC a day before the Parliament approves new members of the commission on March 13.

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