Communications Commission campaigns against independent media and civil sector

The Communications Commission has launched a campaign against broadcasters and the non-governmental sector. Kakha Bekauri's agency has responded to the appeal sent to Facebook and has demanded publicity of funding sources from Georgian broadcasters in response to the activation of the civil sector against trolls.

The statement issued by the Communications Regulatory Commission raises big questions. Kakha Bekauri has repeatedly tried to attack independent media outlets in the recent past, and it seems that he is going to do the same this time.

The "Mtavari Channel" has already responded to the statement. According to the company's lawyer, Bekauri's statement is not true, as all sources of income of the "Mtavari Channel" and "Rustavi 2"under the previous management have been fully reflected in the regulatory commission. The reason why the previous management of "Rustavi 2" appealed the request of the Communications Commission was that Bekauri's agency requested more information than the law obliges the commercial channels to provide.

First of all, this statement is a lie. Almost every word that is written there is a lie, and the Commission funded by our money gives itself the right to provide such lies to the public. Second, it is very noteworthy that the appeal sent to Facebook, signed by several media outlets and non-governmental organizations, became problematic for the commission. If the Commission, on the one hand, argues that its purpose is the transparency of political funds, why not welcome this statement? - says Tamta Muradashvili, the lawyer of the "Mtavari Channel".

The third sector has also responded to the request of the regulatory commission. According to them, it is unclear what Bekauri's statement served, as the letter sent by the non-governmental sector and the media to Facebook referred only to the social network, which is not part of the commission's regulations.

It is completely different when we talk about the transparency of broadcasters and it is absolutely different when we talk about the political processes to which social networks are linked, - Sulkhan Saladze, Chairman of GYLA explains.

Recall that on June 29, the non-governmental sector and media representatives sent an open letter to the Facebook administration urging them to make public detailed information about political advertisements from Georgia, in particular, the identity of the advertiser, their contact details and the exact amount spent on each advertisement "Citizens are misled by the anonymous, coordinated, sponsored political discrediting in Georgia, which deprives them of the freedom of information and, therefore, the opportunity to form political views based on their own assessments - this is no longer democracy, according to your formula, and we believe Facebook will stand by the side of democracy, - is written in the open letter of the Commission.