The Communications Commission has fined TV Pirveli 2,500 GEL for violating the Law on Broadcasting.

According to the Communications Commission, the broadcaster was monitored from May 11 to May 13, during which several cases of violations of the law were recorded. In particular, the coverage of public issues in TV Pirveli’s news programs was based on the broadcaster’s personal attitude/opinion.

“In accordance with the principle of impartiality, the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting restricts the ability of a broadcaster to express its own opinion in news and certain socio-political programs and/or to cover events in a biased manner, according to its own view. In particular, according to Article 54, Paragraph 5 of the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting, it is prohibited for a broadcaster to cover political or other types of controversial information or issues of public policy in news and socio-political programs based on the personal attitude or opinion of the broadcaster. It is prohibited for a broadcaster to express a position in support of or against any political party, public, religious association or other interest group in news and socio-political programs.

The Commission determined that the phrases identified within the framework of the monitoring were expressed by the representatives of the broadcaster, news program presenters or journalists and are expressed as their own opinions and not as assessments of third parties. In accordance with the law, the broadcaster should not cover news based on the personal attitude or opinion of the broadcaster. In the given cases, the phrases uttered by the broadcaster’s presenters/journalists, taking into account their context, form of dissemination, content and intensity, constitute news coverage based on the personal attitude or opinion of the broadcaster.

Given that a written warning has already been issued to the broadcaster as a sanction for the aforementioned violation of the law this year and the TV company has committed the violation repeatedly, the Communications Commission has fined TV Pirveli with the minimum sanction provided for by law - 2,500 GEL," the Communications Commission said in a statement.

In addition, as MediaChecker writes, the Commission fined the TV company for using terms such as "prisoners of conscience", "oligarch", etc.

"The Commission considered that the TV company used the phrases: "prisoners of conscience", "those convicted based on the testimonies of false witness police officers", "Dream investigation", "oligarch", "prisoners of conscience and political prisoners", "prisoners of conscience", "non-existent crime", "what ordinary members of the Georgian Dream say does not mean much, because practice shows that everything will happen as Bidzina Ivanishvili says. Accordingly, if Bidzina Ivanishvili makes a political decision to open the prison doors for prisoners of conscience or political prisoners, he will do it", "Opening the prison doors for prisoners of conscience and political prisoners will be a justified step in a Christian, humane and state-oriented way", "Georgian Dream is still waiting for prisoners of conscience to admit to a non-existent crime", "this will be the heaviest financial blow to Bidzina Ivanishvili's regime", "which the Dream punished as an example", "The oligarch's party decided to protect its leader by attacking Salome Zurabishvili today, using the phrase "activists' terror continues" - to cover the issue in the news program based on the broadcaster's personal attitude or opinion, thereby violating Article 54 of the Law on Broadcasting - "Fairness and Impartiality", writes Mediachecker.