სპონსორობისა და რეკლამირების საკითხი ქართულ საზოგადოებრივ მაუწყებელში: დისკუსიები და საერთაშორისო გამოცდილება

The following article is an attempted research of the issues of funding and sponsorship in the
public broadcaster. The issue is important, as far as in tranditional democratic countries one
of the mainc supportive factor for democratic development and formation of civil society is
the institute of public broadcasting.
In addition, according to the latest studies, nowadays, the main source of information for the
majority of Georgian population is television. According to the International organization
Freedom House, Georgia has the freest and most diverse media environment in South
Caucasus. The constitution protects media freedom and Georgia has some of the most
progressive legislation in the region, though political polarization and close links between
media companies and politicians continue to negatively affect the sector. The role and
importance of the Public Broadcaster is crucial given that the media environment in Georgia
is polarized. During the years, there has been active criticism related to affiliation of the
Broadcaster with the Government of Georgia, constant reorganizations and frequent changes
in leadership have hampered its development. All this resulted in the Georgian Public
Broadcaster having a low rating. Precisley these factors empower the interest in my research
topic. Additional interest arose because of the changes in the law on broadcast, done in 2018.
The new regulations grant the state-funded Georgian Broadcaster more freedom in earmarking
budgetary funds and enable it to receive additional revenues from commercial advertising, has
attracted strong critisism from civil society, private television stations and etc. Opposition MPs
echoed these concerns, saying it was unacceptable to increase GPB’s budget at the expense of
Private television stations and would promote corruption in the broadcaster.