The Parliament passed with its third and final hearing amendments to the law on broadcasting, legally binding the public TV to air “every week” programs involving “political discussions on the pressing political developments in the country.”

The public TV, according to the law, has to provide “non-discriminative” participation of those political parties, which are receiving state funding. The opposition parties, which have refused to enter the parliament, have been deprived of funding as a result of controversial amendments passed by the Parliament in July, 2008. President Saakashvili has pledged to restore funding to those parties as part of his “new wave of democratic reforms.”

Public TV resumed its bi-weekly political talk show, the Comment of the Day, early in October.