On February 28, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and LevanMikeladze Foundation, with the support of the Open Society Georgia Foundation, published report related to 2012 annual activities of the Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC).
Research revealed, that the law doesn’t provideadequate stipulation for a staff appointment mechanism of the Commission, required to protect the regulatory authority from the influence of political forces; it also fails to support effective control of the public sector and its involvement in the activities of the Commission. The legislator doesn’t clearly define the extent of the authority of the Commission to control compliance of transit broadcasts with the Law of Georgia “On Copyright and Neighboring Rights”.
The report has, once again, highlighted issue of conflict of interest of the GNCC Chairman, Mr. IrakliChikovani, that jeopardizes not only objective and effective activities of the Commission but also the development of the telecommunication sector.
The set of decisions of the Georgian National Communications Commissionhas been of discriminatory character. The Commission is not actively involved either in the review of the amendments to the Law of Georgia ” On Broadcasting” or in the work of the Advisory Council of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia,set up to facilitate the move to digital TV broadcasting.
See the report on our Publications website or visit the link “Civil Monitoring for Improvement of TV-media Environment”.
