Adjara TV and Radio Company was established in 2013. It serves the eastern part of Georgia, the autonomous republic of Adjara.
Media assets
Television: Adjara TV
Radio: Adjara Radio
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
Adjara TV is officially part of GPB, but it had its own management and was run as an independent legal body. The highest governing body at Adjara TV was a Council of Advisors with five members, three of whom were appointed by the ruling party and the other two by opposition. However, in June 2023, the Georgian parliament adopted new legal provisions that dissolved the advisory board, placing the station under Georgian Public Broadcaster whose head is Vasil Maghlaperidze, a former deputy chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party. Adjara is thus represented by three members in the Board of Trustees of Georgia Public Broadcaster, all three appointed by the Adjara government.
Source of funding and budget
Adjara TV is financed through an allocation taken from the budget of GPB. The law states that at least 15% of the GPB’s budget should be allocated to Adjara TV.
Editorial independence
There are no government-imposed rules on the editorial policy of Adjara TV. On the contrary, the station has been hailed as an independent public broadcaster, its management having the support of local media rights groups. Nevertheless, in recent years, the ruling party intensified its efforts to gain influence on Adjara TV. In April 2019, it impeached Natia Kapanadze, the director of Adjara TV, a decision that attracted harsh criticism from international organizations. Coalition for Media Advocacy, an alliance of local media watchdogs, said that journalists at Adjara TV are continuously persecuted for their opinions.
Adjara TV operates in line with a Code of Conduct, which establishes the station’s guiding principles that include editorial independence, fairness, impartiality, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, age and gender diversity. These principles, however, are not followed in practice.
Except for GPB’s Public Board, there is no independent assessment or oversight mechanism that validates the editorial independence of Adjara TV.
September 2023