OSCE hails Georgia's Public TV GDP-based funding

In December, the Georgian Parliament amended the law on broadcasting, stipulating annual funding of the public broadcaster with no less than 0.12 percent of the country’s GDP – the scheme, which will go in force from 2011.

Georgia had a similar system until 2008, with 0.15 percent of GDP guaranteed as the broadcaster's funding. Prime-time advertisements are banned on Georgian public television, except during sport events.

“Georgia had pioneered the GDP-based financing of public television, and I am glad it has returned to this method, albeit with a lesser amount guaranteed. I see this as an affirmation of the principle that television must be exempt from government influences,” Miklos Haraszti said in a statement in which he also welcomed Spain’s reform of public broadcaster’s funding system.

“Along with a similar reform in France already in motion, the Spanish and the Georgian financing ideas demonstrate new, innovative ways to secure public-service broadcasting as an essential institution of democracy,” he added.

/Georgian Times/