The First Pre-Election Interim Report of Print Media Monitoring (Press Release) 

International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) publishes the first interim report of the 2013 pre-election monitoring, which includes  results of the print media monitoring between July 15 and August 15.The monitoring was carried out according to the internationally accepted methodology. Following media outlets were monitored: “Rezonansi”, “24 Saati”, “AkhaliTaoba”, “AkhaliVersia”, “Alia” “Asaval-Dasavali” and “KvirisPalitra”.

Results of the monitoring during this  month show that  Georgian publications didn’t leave any of the most widely discussed issues without attention and published comprehensive interviews and analytical articles.

Among the monitored subjects, major focus was on the President, the Prime-Minister, the Government, Georgian Dream Coalition and United National Movement. The tone used towards them was disparate.  

Election issues were widely discussed during a month of the monitoring period.Nevertheless, candidates and their programs were rarely discussed. Candidates, who are less familiar to the society, were left without attention. Most of the newspapers were trying to follow journalistic standards, provide readers with diverse and comprehensive information. However, violations were also observed. Resembling the 2012 monitoring, using improper language and discriminatory attitude in certain print media outlets towards different individuals and groups of people is evident. .

The report is availableon ISFEDweb-page - www.isfed.ge and also on the web-page, created with the support of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - www.mediamonitor.ge . ISFED will present itsnext report on September 2013.

The monitoring is implementing with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union (EU) within the project “Professional Media for Elections”, which aims at contributing to professional, objective and balanced media environment during the Parliamentary and Presidential elections in Georgia through the media monitoring campaign. Election monitoring of Georgian TV, radio, print and online media outlets is being implementedwithin the project. Print media monitoring started on July 15 and will last throughNovember 15.