Regional Media in Adjara. Chance and Limit for the Democratic Development of the Region

January 11, 2010

What is that the media in Adjara can do to support the democratic development process in the country and is there any possibility for the media to act as the controlling mechanism of the government in the region – these were the main issues discussed during the debates organized in Batumi on December 16th by the Heinrich Boell Foundation.

The speakers of the debates were Tsira Abuladze – Head of the Information Bureau of the TV-Radio Broadcasting of Governmental Department of Adjarian Autonomous Republic, Eter Turadze – Editor in Chief of the Newspaper “Batumelebi” and Zviad Koridze – Media expert, lecturer at the School of Caucasian Journalism and Media Management.

As the main issue during the discussions the status of Adjara TV-Radio Broadcasting Department was outlined, as it represents the regional government by its status.  The various suggestions were made how to change its format in order for the TV and Radio to represent the interests of the majority as well as the minorities in the society.

The speakers underlined the high importance of the journalists’ professionalism together with the existing problems of regional and national media in regard with editorial independence and information availability. The debate participants argued that the fact the media is easily manipulated today is the result of the problems mentioned above.

The role of the international organizations’ support was particularly discussed during the debate. Majority of the participants agreed that the attention of the international organizations should be directed to the strengthening and support of the independent media in the region. In particular, the support for journalistic investigation and the protection of journalists’ rights are one of the most important issues.

The participants also talked about the importance of independent and free business environment for the development of free media.

The Charter on Journalist Ethics from the side of debate participants was considered to be one of the very important steps towards the development and strengthening of the media in the country. Over 2 months about 100 Georgian journalists, European experts, Georgian media experts and lawyers were working on the text of the charter and 3 representatives of Adjara regional media were chosen as the members of the Council.

The speakers and the discussion participants stated that the incident with the newspaper “Batumelebi” in November is the clear evidence that there are still a lot to do for the free media and pluralism in the region as well as in the whole country. The editor in chief of the “Batumelebi” underlined that to prevent media and society from such incidents, the active civil participation is crucial and such debates are one of the important events to support and encourage it.

Article in newspaper "Batumelebi" in Georgian (download pdf)