ComCom publishes first media monitoring report for pre-election period

The Communications Commission (ComCom) has released its inaugural media monitoring report for the pre-election period of the 2025 municipal elections, covering the timeframe from August 4 to September 4.

During this reporting period, a total of 51 broadcasters were subject to quantitative monitoring. The Commission concentrated on several key aspects, including pre-election advertising, debates, news and socio-political programmes, election-related agitation, as well as public opinion surveys and polls.

The monitoring process analysed the amount of airtime allocated to each subject, taking into account both direct and indirect coverage, as well as gender representation. Direct coverage refers to instances where candidates or election subjects speak or participate directly in programmes, while indirect coverage assesses the airtime allocated to candidates and their supporters through the broadcasters’ content. The results also provide disaggregated data by gender, highlighting the total time allocated to female and male politicians within news programmes across individual broadcasters.

Furthermore, the report includes an analysis of the tone of coverage across seven television channels: the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB), Adjara Television (Public Broadcaster), Rustavi 2, Imedi TV, PosTV, Pirveli TV, and Formula. The tone was categorised as positive, neutral, or negative. Monitoring of these channels was conducted during peak viewing hours from 19:00 to 24:00.

The Communications Commission emphasises that the media monitoring for the 2025 municipal elections was carried out by specially trained individuals, selected according to international standards, alongside staff from the ComCom itself.