The Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) is committed to ensuring that the 2025 municipal elections pre-campaign period and electoral process are covered in a balanced and impartial manner, upholding all international standards and the values inherent to public broadcasting.
To this end, GPB offers television and radio airtime to all political parties, ensuring equal and neutral coverage throughout the pre-election campaign.
Debates 2025
GPB will comply with legal requirements and plans to organise electoral debates.
Public broadcasters must broadcast pre-election debates without discrimination. Furthermore, the Public Broadcaster is obligated to invite all political parties to participate in pre-election debates if they achieved similar or better results in the most recent parliamentary elections compared to participating parties.
Law of Georgia on Broadcasting, Article 55(2); Election Code of Georgia, Article 51(3)
The obligation of equal distribution of airtime established by this Law (Organic Law of Georgia “Election Code of Georgia”), creation of equal conditions for participation in pre-election debates and establishment of equal conditions for election advertising shall apply to the broadcasters mentioned in paragraphs 5, 6 and 15 of this article (Article 51 – Information provision of election campaigning), concerning the authorised parties.
Organic Law of Georgia “Election Code of Georgia”, Article 51(4)
Debates will be provided with sign language interpretation and will also be broadcast on Georgian Radio.
Coverage Across Multiple Platforms
GPB enables parties to utilise airtime for presenting the party or majoritarian (single-mandate) lists, mayoral candidates, or programmes. (For presentations, parties will be allocated live airtime provided they supply the channel with direct live broadcast signals.) Please note that event timings must not conflict with EuroBasket 2025 broadcasts, during which the Georgian Public Broadcaster has no right to interrupt or cancel coverage (see championship schedule).
From September 15, during the daily Moambe programme at 18:00, representatives of all registered electoral subjects will be given 10 minutes each to present their programmes (once per representative). Materials will also be translated into the Armenian and Azerbaijani languages and published on the online portal.
Throughout the entire electoral period, all Moambe programmes, including Moambe Regions, will cover significant activities of all electoral subjects (both authorised and others), their electoral programmes and positions. All programmes will include sign language interpretation. The party or its press service must provide an update about their activities.
The 2025 municipal elections will be covered across all socio-political programmes on both television and radio.
The Public Broadcaster calls upon all electoral subjects to provide advance information about their activities to the email address: [email protected].
Web Portal
GPB launched a dedicated web portal, “Elections 2025,” to cover the 2025 municipal elections. The platform will feature news, updates, and insights relevant to the pre-election period and the election process. The portal will be systematically updated throughout the pre-election period.
Monitoring
The Public Broadcaster will conduct internal monitoring of the 2025 municipal elections coverage.
Monitoring of all socio-political programmes on GPB First Channel and Georgian Radio aims to calculate quantitative data on airtime allocated to monitoring subjects.
Monitoring will be carried out using specialised software, which will include designated links to each television program and story recording for precise tracking and analysis. The processing of covered information will be ensured by monitors trained to consider the specifics of different platforms and programmes.
Following international organisation practices, the following will be measured:
- Coverage topics by allocated time
- Direct and indirect subject coverage by allocated time
- Subject coverage by tone (positive, negative, neutral)
Timing will be calculated when a subject:
- Appears on screen
- Speaks on screen
- Is heard through voice only
- Their visual attributes appear on screen
- Others discuss them
The media monitoring report will be published following completion of the electoral process.
We emphasise that the Public Broadcaster’s pre-election monitoring underscores the importance of impartial and balanced coverage in polarised political and media environments, ensuring objective public information about monitoring results.
Please note that conducting internal monitoring is not a legislative obligation but rather an initiative of the Public Broadcaster, representing a significant component of accountability.
Media Literacy
The Public Broadcaster serves the entire society and each of its members. Accordingly, all election-related information broadcast during the pre-election period will include sign language interpretation to ensure accessibility for all viewers.
The Public Broadcaster will communicate election-related information in ethnic minority languages.
Advertising Time
Under current legislation, the Public Broadcaster allocates 5 minutes per hour in its programming for free placement of pre-election advertising by authorised parties. Every 3 hours, pre-election advertisements submitted by each authorised party will be placed equally and without discrimination, provided that advertising time allocated to one electoral subject during this time interval does not exceed 90 seconds (electoral subjects may divide this time into several parts). Time unused by an electoral subject cannot be subsequently added to their other allocated time.
For parties other than authorised ones, 10 seconds per hour is allocated for each subject for free placement of pre-election advertising. Every 3 hours, pre-election advertisements submitted by each such party will be placed equally and without discrimination, provided that advertising time allocated to one party during this time interval does not exceed 30 seconds (parties may divide this time into several parts). Unused time by a party cannot be subsequently added to their other allocated time.
Information regarding the October 4, 2025, municipal elections will be published on the official website 1tv.ge and the specially created “Elections 2025” platform, with systematic updates throughout the pre-election period.
