The monitoring of media during election campaign periods is essential to ensure fair and democratic elections. Members of the Georgian National Communications Commission will follow Training for Trainers on 14-15 May 2016 on how to carry out such media monitoring and ensure that the laws governing media coverage of elections are followed.

During the training the international expert of the Council of Europe will share European  standards and best practice with the Georgian National Communications Commission regarding the role and duties of the media authority and media companies during the pre-election campaign. In addition, the CoE expert will review the legal provisions concerning the publication of program airtime, the rules for the allocation of paid and free political advertising, the disclosure of funding’s, the legal and ethical standards of media coverage of elections as well as regarding holding political debates and publishing the election polls/surveys etc.

The event is organised within the framework of the joint CoE/EU Program “EU/CoE Joint Project Promoting freedom, professionalism and pluralism of the media”. The project was launched in January 2015 and aims to improve freedom, independence, pluralism and diversity of media, to review media legislation and regulation to bring these in line with European standards, including ethical standards for media professionalism as well as to support the implementation of legal frameworks, including remedial actions and to promote the safety of journalists.