On 7 September 2016, the first Steering committee meeting was held within the framework of EU/CoE joints projects “Promoting freedom, professionalism and pluralism of the media” and “Protecting internet freedom through legislation and arrangements for multi-stakeholders dialogue”. The meeting aimed at informing the beneficiaries of the progress in implementation of the projects and to discuss the work plan for the upcoming year.

The Steering committee meeting was opened by Ms Ana Zec, Deputy Head of Council of Europe office in Georgia and by Ms Leila Marshania, Project Manager who welcomed the participants and presented the main goals of the meeting. The event was also attended by the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Delegation of the European Union to Georgia.

Members of the Steering Committee are the main beneficiaries of media and internet governance projects representing the state and private institutes operating in media and internet governance area: Georgian National Communications Commission,  Public Service Broadcaster, Charter of Journalistic Ethics, Mediachecker, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, Personal Data Protection Inspector, Transparency International Georgia, Georgian Association of Regional Broadcasters, Institute for Development of Freedom of Information,  Media Development Foundation, Data Protection Agency Small and Middle Internet Service Providers Association.

The Project team presented the progress and specific activities that were conducted in order to contribute achieving the final results of the projects, namely the establishment of the internet governance forums and the cross boarding advisory body of the network of self-regulatory bodies, conducting a comprehensive trainings on election coverage for the TV stations, preparing reports on media professionalism and the internet sector etc.

Plans for 2017 were discussed and suggestions made by partners notably on supporting the faculties of the journalistic studies on increasing awareness of broadcasters on the self-regulatory principles of the code of conduct for broadcasters conducting public awareness campaign for increasing the publicity of the mechanisms foreseen by the provisions of the Code of Conduct for Broadcasters as well as promoting the preparation of the code for internet service providers etc.

Projects plans for 2017 were endorsed and supported by all members of the committee. It is agreed to meet within the similar format for discussing the progress of the projects implementation in the summer 2017.