[Article 51 – Information provision of election campaigning

1. During election campaigning, when broadcasting social-political programmes and elections, a broadcaster shall observe the principle of impartiality and fairness according to the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting, the Code of Conduct of Broadcasters, and this Law.

2. Free airtime, in accordance with the procedures established by this Law, shall be equally granted to the political parties that have collected at least 3 per cent of votes in the last parliamentary elections. Free airtime shall not be granted to a party which, on the basis of Article 30(5) or (6), or Article 391(3) or (4) of the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Associations of Citizens, does not receive budgetary financing at the time of fixing the elections.

3. The general broadcaster, which decides to cover the pre-election campaign on its own air, shall broadcast the pre-election debates in a non-discriminatory manner. In addition, the broadcaster is obliged to invite all other political parties to the preelection debates, which showed similar or better results than the party participating in the last parliamentary elections.

4. The obligation of equal distribution of airtime established by this Law, creation of equal conditions for participation in preelection debates and establishment of equal conditions for election advertising shall apply to the broadcasters mentioned in paragraphs 5, 6 and 15 of this article, in relation to the authorised parties.

5. During the election campaign in their respective coverage areas, the Public Broadcaster, Ajara TV and Radio of the Public Broadcaster, and any community broadcaster shall allot, not later than the 50th day before the Election Day, in every hour five minutes to broadcast free of charge, the pre-election advertisements, and every 3 hours broadcast free of charge and without discrimination, the pre-election advertisements submitted to them by each qualified electoral subject, on the condition that the time allotted to a qualified electoral subject during such period shall not exceed 90 seconds (each electoral subject may divide the time allotted in several parts). The airtime not used by an electoral subject may not be added to other airtime allotted to the
electoral subject.

6. During the election campaign in its respective coverage area, the Public Broadcaster shall allot, not later than the 50th day before the Election Day, in every three hours no less than 7.5 minutes to broadcast free of charge, the pre-election advertisements, and broadcast on the basis of equality and without discrimination, the pre-election advertisements submitted to it by each qualified electoral subject, on the condition that the time allotted to a qualified electoral subject during such period shall not exceed 90 seconds (each electoral subject may divide the time allotted in several parts). The airtime not used by an electoral subject may not be added to other airtime allotted to the electoral subject.

7. The public broadcaster is obliged to provide the sign language translation in its election-related programmes aired during the pre-election campaign.

8. The public broadcaster, Ajara TV/Radio of the public broadcaster (legal entity under public law) is obliged to allocate time for the placement of pre-election advertisements of all other parties except for the authorised party, which shall be equally distributed among these parties.

9. The obligation to allocate free advertising time provided for in this article during the extraordinary elections of the mayor of the municipality (except for the extraordinary elections of the mayor of the municipality of Tbilisi) shall apply only to the local broadcaster. The obligation established by this paragraph shall apply to the public broadcaster and the general national broadcaster during the elections of the Mayor of Tbilisi Municipality.

10. The Georgian National Communications Commission shall determine the rules of media participation and of the use thereof in the election process, monitor the observance of the norms established by this law by the broadcaster and respond accordingly to the violation of the mentioned norms. The Georgian National Communications Commission shall procure the services required for media monitoring in accordance with the rules established by the legislation of Georgia.

11. It shall be prohibited to place paid pre-election and/or free pre-election advertisements, programmes of electoral subjects on TV and radio 8 hours before the polling and until 8 pm of the polling day, as well as to make automated telephone calls and send short text messages for election purposes.

12. It shall be inadmissible for an electoral subject to place an advertisement on the broadcaster that serves the agitation goals of another electoral subject during the advertising time. The advertisement of the electoral subject shall not contain elements of dvertisement conducive to the election of another electoral subject, including its representative, serial number and symbols.

13. In the course of political/pre-election advertising, the sum of the single contours of the letters denoting the name of the electoral subject and the single contours of the digits denoting his/her serial number shall occupy not less than 10% of the picture area. In addition, the advertisement shall be made in such a way that at the end of it, at least for the last 1 second, the name of the electoral subject and his/her serial number are displayed, so that the sum of the single contours of the letters indicating the name and the single contours of the serial numbers occupies 50% of the picture area. In the case of violation of the rule established by this paragraph, the broadcaster shall not place the relevant political/pre-election advertisement.

14. The broadcaster shall be prohibited from devoting more airtime to the relevant electoral subject than the fee paid for the placement of paid pre-election advertisements or devoting more time to the placement of free advertisements than those defined by this law. The action provided for by this paragraph shall be deemed to be a prohibited donation.

15. The broadcaster (except for the broadcasters mentioned in paragraphs 5 and 6 of this article) is obliged to broadcast preelection advertisements free of charge during the last 30 days before the Election Day, if it places paid pre-election advertisements during the election campaign in its service area. In this case, the local broadcaster or cable broadcaster is obliged to devote 7.5 minutes every 3 hours to free pre-election advertisements and to place equally and in a non-discriminatory manner pre-election advertisements submitted to it by each authorised party, provided that the advertising time allocated to one electoral subject during this period does not exceed 90 seconds (an electoral subject may divide this time into several parts). No unused time may be added by the electoral subject to another time belonging to him/her.

16. At least 10% of the amount spent by the party participating in the elections for the placement of pre-election advertisements shall be used for the placement of pre-election advertisements in at least 7 non-national broadcasters.

17. To determine the status of a qualified electoral subject, a public opinion survey must meet the following requirements:

a) it should be based on a recognised scientific methodology for the random selection of a representative that ensures at least 95 per cent reliability of the results and the margin of error of which does not exceed 3 per cent;

b) shall be published after verifying the reliability of the public opinion research methodology and the objectivity of the results;

c) in the presence of significant differences or changes in the results of the same or other comparable public opinion survey, a convincing scientific explanation of such differences or changes shall be possible;

d) there shall be no manipulation by public opinion or a means of raising money, it shall not be conducted by phone, mail and/or the Internet;

e) shall be based on a transparent methodology that allows for independent verification of results;

f) when publishing public opinion survey results the following shall be specified:

f.a) an organisation conducting the survey;

f.b) an organisation ordering or financing the survey;

f.c) exact formulation and sequence of questions used in the survey;

f.d) time of the conduct of field survey;

f.e) number of respondents and the selection method;

f.f) in what area or in what category of people the selection was made;

f.g) whether the survey is based on the opinion of all respondents;

f.h) number of respondents who refused to participate in the survey or did not answer the question or could not be interviewed;

f.i) selection size;

f.j) scope of error;

f.k) information about any other factor that may have had a significant impact on the results of the survey.

18. The broadcaster commissioning the public opinion survey is obliged to comply with the requirements set forth in paragraph 17 of this article. A broadcaster that publishes a public opinion survey commissioned by others shall be subject only to the requirements set forth in paragraph 17(f) of this article. (Shall become effective upon the acquisition of full authority by the Parliament of Georgia elected in the Parliamentary Elections of Georgia of 26 October 2024)]

Organic Law of Georgia No 6723 of 2 July 2020 – website, 3.7.2020

Organic Law of Georgia No 673 of 22 June 2021 – website, 24.6.2021