Charter of Journalistic Ethics asks PM to revise communication strategy with media
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, July 30
Georgian journalists, members of the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, which unites 363 journalists, sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Georgia, Mamuka Bakhtadze, asking him to revise the strategy of communication with media.
The journalists speak about “a very poor practice” established by several governmental agencies, especially by the law enforcement agencies, when journalists are invited to the briefing and are not informed about the topic.
“The media is not an agency of the press service of any government office, and its function does not imply to allocate the air time for briefings,” the statement reads.
They say it is important the editorial offices be informed about the briefing or news conference topics in advance in order to make decision-based on own human and technical resources whether they want to attend and cover them or not.
The journalists explain that such invitations create problems to broadcasters, which are not allowed to decide to schedule a live broadcast of the briefing or not.
According to the authors of the statement, small media outlets also face challenges related to the distribution of their human resources and they find it difficult to decide whether they should send journalists for covering the news or not. The statement reads that journalists, who are sent to attend a briefing, the topic of which is unknown, are unprepared and cannot ask adequate questions.
“The main role of the media is to cover the news of public interest and ask questions that are interesting to the public. Accordingly, the media itself should decide whether the audience is interested in the topic and to select the format to cover the news content and to prepare for asking questions,” the letter reads.
Moreover, some media outlets speak of discriminatory approach and claim that they are not informed about the press-conferences or briefings at all.
“We ask you to revise the media communication strategy. Also, before holding briefings or press conferences, except for personal communication with the publications, please publish an announcement through the website to provide the media with non-discriminatory information regardless of whether their editorial policy is acceptable for any state agency or not,” the journalists call on the PM.
