The Coalition For Media Advocacy Launches Operation

On April 13, Frontline Georgia Club hosted a presentation of a new coalition.  The coalition For Media Advocacy is made up of 11 media and non-governmental organizations.  The key purpose of the coalition is to improve a media environment in the country and protect the interests of media owners and journalists.  At the news conference the coalition founders signed a memorandum, which calls for the commitment of all members to the goals of the coalition.  The coalition is open to any organization that focuses on media advocacy issues and shares the coalition goals. 

The coalition will advocate a number of issues, including media transparency, access to public information, improvement and enforcement of medial laws, monitoring over the National Communications Commission of Georgia.  Moreover, the coalition will work on the protection of rights of journalists and financial independence of the media, track and respond adequately to the developments in the media.  The coalition will focus on the problems faced by broadcasters in regions.

“The coalition will address all issues in the sphere of interests of media organizations.  The attention will be focused on regional broadcasters”, said Tamar Kordzaia, the coalition coordinator and a representative of the Young Lawyers’ Association”. 

The first issue the coalition will address will be the reliability of a survey of public opinion ordered by the National Communications Commission and conducted by BCG Research.  Shorena Shaverdashvili, a Media Club representative, said that the coalition would study the survey in detail and would actively work on issuing licenses by the regulatory commission.

The OSGF is a coalition supporter and member.  An OSGF representative said that developing a package of media related bills by media experts had led to the creation of the coalition.

“This is not the case of getting idea from donors.  This is the logical end of the process that started last year, when a group of media experts developed a bill for the improvement of a media environment.  Later the initiative was backed by non-government organizations and media associations”, said Khatia Jinjikhadze, the OSGF Media Program Manager.  

Currently the coalition has 11 members:

•  Young Lawyers’ Association of Georgia;

•  The Eurasia Partnership Foundation;

•  Transparency International Georgia;

•  Civil Development Institute;

•  The Georgian Regional Media Association;

•  For Civil Society, a non-governmental organization;

•  The Association of Regional Broadcasters of Georgia;

•  The Network of Regional Broadcasters;

•  The Charter of Journalism Ethics;

•  Media Club

•  The Open Society Georgia Foundation

See the memorandum, which has been signed by the coalition members today.