Pre-Election Media Monitoring

During a recent month Kavkasia TV has allocated more airtime to Tbilisi mayoral candidates and parties in its main news bulletins, then other five TV channels being monitored in a pre-election period in frames of project supported by EU Delegation to Georgia and UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Follow links below to view details of monitoring results:

Length of coverage time allocated to candidates and coverage tone May 19-25- pdf

Aggregate results for all four weeks on length and tone of coverage April 26-May25 – pdf

In a period between April 26 and May 25, Kavkasia TV, unlike other five channels, has also allocated slightly more airtime to coverage of Alliance for Georgia’s leader Irakli Alasania, then to incumbent mayor Gigi Ugulava’s campaigning. The latter leads in terms of airtime allocated to mayoral candidates on other TV channels.

While tone of coverage of Alasania on Kavkasia TV and Maestro TV was mainly neutral (in case of Kavkasia TV sometimes positive), in coverage of Ugulava these two TV stations took mainly neutral or negative tone.

Rustavi 2 TV, Imedi TV and Real TV had neutral or negative tone in covering Alasania’s campaign (in case of Rustavi 2 it was neutral and in case of Real TV mainly negative) and in case of Ugulava these channels took neutral or positive tone.

Tone of coverage of candidates was overwhelmingly neutral on the public broadcaster’s First Channel. Although there were few cases of both negative and positive tones in covering Ugulava’s campaign, according the monitoring, which is carried out by Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC).

According to a separate media monitoring, carried out by the OSCE/ODIHR international observation mission, in a period between April 18 and May 12 there was “a lack of balance in the prime-time news coverage of political subjects and candidates on most monitored television channels, with some supporting the government and others the opposition.”

According to the same report only the Georgian Public Broadcaster’s (GPB) First Channel “offered its viewers a more balanced picture of the campaign in its prime-time news programs.”

The two most popular TV channels Rustavi 2 and Imedi TV demonstrated their support for the ruling party and its Tbilisi mayoral candidate Gigi Ugulava.

“Both channels also devoted extensive and favorable coverage to the activities of authorities, outside the campaign context, indirectly benefiting candidates with a pro-government orientation,” the report reads.

The same trend was observed in coverage of yet another nationwide broadcaster, a state-run Adjara TV, according to the report.

Real TV, which goes out on cable in Tbilisi, has demonstrated “a clear bias in favor of the UNM and against the opposition,” according to the report.

Two other TV channels with area of coverage mainly limited with the capital city, Kavkasia TV and TV Maestro, “by contrast, have so far served as a platform for the opposition, in particular the Alliance for Georgia.”

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