On October 19, the Parliament of Georgia adopted the amendments to the Law on Broadcasting, which creates increased risks of free media suppression. Non-governmental organizations call on the President of Georgia to veto the legislative changes, which carry the threat of censorship and punishment of critical media.
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‘‘Parliament considered amendments to the Law On Broadcasting in one week, without holding a public discussion. After the amendments proposed by majority MPs come into force, instead of the media reviewing the complaints regarding the violation of professional standards, as is now, the competence to consider the issues of hate speech and obscenity and the authority to apply the appropriate sanctions will be assigned to the Communications Regulatory Commission. These sanctions may come as a warning, a fine, or a suspension of license/authorization. The decisions of the Communications Commission are subject to appeal in court, however, media chiefs are concerned about the politicized nature of the Communications Commission and its close ties with the ruling party, as well as extremely low trust in the impartiality of the court.
It should be noted that the original version of the draft law was only concerned with the regulation of hate speech. The issue of transferring the regulation of obscenity from the sphere of self-regulation to the sphere of state regulation was added to the draft law after the first reading. All this happened during the period when the impeachment of the president was being discussed in the parliament and all attention was focused on this matter.
The ruling party Georgian Dream justifies the amendments to the Law On Broadcasting with the need to comply with European directives.
‘‘The draft was developed in communication with the European Commission and was written word for word as discussed with the European Commission’’, said the Chairman of the Parliament Shalva Papuashvili.
According to the Chairman of the Sectoral Economy and Economic Policy Committee, Davit Songhulashvili, the draft law reflects the recommendations of the European Council, therefore, its adoption will fulfill the recommendation of the European Commission, according to which an effective mechanism to prevent the spread of incitement to terrorism and hate speech should be created at the legislative level, and the 7th of the 12-point plan will be considered fulfilled.
Non-governmental organization Center for Social Justice believes that the amendments to the Law On Broadcasting unreasonably expand the scope of the authority of the Communications Commission to interfere in the content of broadcasters' programs and exacerbate the danger of imposing control and censorship on non-state-aligned media organizations in Georgia.
Transparency International - Georgia believes that the law cannot ensure the achievement of the objective for which the legal regulation of hate speech and obscenity is allowed in developed democratic countries, and instead, it is more likely to become a punitive lever against critical media. That's why public organizations called on the president to veto the legislative changes.
According to the representation of the European Union in Georgia, the concept of ‘‘obscenity’’ is not part of the directive and there is no need to subject it to government regulation.
According to Davit Songhulashvili, if the European Commission officially informs them that the concept of obscenity is not part of the European directive and there is no need to regulate it, then it will be removed from the law.
