With 83 votes for and 13 – against, the Georgian lawmakers overrode the veto of President Giorgi Margvelashvili over Law on Broadcasting. MPs discussed the motivated remarks of president before putting the changes for voting. The debates were held. Now if President does not sign the law, then it will be Irakli Kobakhidze, Chairman of the parliament to do so.

“Proposed changes into Law on Broadcasting aim at prevention of embezzlement of tens of millions GEL spent on zero rating and zero social influence. Our opponents, who are criticizing the drat-bill, were calmly observing the processes taking place at Public Broadcaster during years. The current situation needs change and the two issues, which became the subject of veto on part of President, serve this purpose,” Kobakhidze stated.

Ana Natsvlishvili, Georgian President’s Parliamentary Secretary introduced the motivated remarks of President to lawmakers. She said she believed that changes made into Law on Broadcasting would bring commercialization and alteration of priorities of Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB).

When commenting on President’s motivated remarks of the legislative package over Law on Broadcaster discussed during the plenary sitting in the parliament today, Natsvlishvili claimed that the proposed changes are harming both for GPB and private media outlets. “Georgian citizens are paying money to the budget allocated to GPB for its priorities to be different from those of private broadcasters,” Natsvlishvili stated.

The Georgian parliament approved the legislative package with the third hearing on December 22, 2017, and submitted it to president for signing. President vetoed the document based on remarks in two directions – advertising and purchasing issues.

Representatives of mass media held two meetings with Chairman of Parliament. They presented their viewpoints to Kobakhidze during the meetings.