Among the candidates running in Tbilisi mayoral race, an incumbent mayor Gigi Ugulava received most of the coverage in all six TV stations, being under monitoring in a pre-election period, followed by leader of Alliance for Georgia, Irakli Alasania, according to the monitoring results made public on May 7.

EU Delegation to Georgia and UN Development Programme (UNDP) commissioned Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC) to monitor main news bulletins and selected talk shows on three national television stations - public broadcaster's First Channel; Rustavi 2 TV and Imedi TV and three Tbilisi-based stations, whose area of coverage is limited mainly with the capital city - Kavkasia TV; Maestro TV and Real TV.

Apart of quantitative survey on how much of their airtime TV stations dedicate to the mayoral candidates and their respective parties, it also provides information about "tone of coverage" of candidates by each TV station.

Follow links below to view details of monitoring results covering a period between April 16 and May 5:

Length of Coverage Time Allocated to Candidates - pdf
Tone of Coverage by TV Channels - pdf

The media monitoring is part of a project implemented by EU Delegation UNDP - Development of Media Monitoring Capacities in Georgia, which aims providing "balanced and neutral information to the public to facilitate informed decision making."

Results of monitoring are discussed by civil society representatives and media experts in the weekly TV show, Media Monitor, aired by the public broadcaster on Fridays.

Central Election Commission is also carrying out its media monitoring ahead of elections. CEC announced on May 2 that it had hired Georgian firms - PrimeTime, BCG and IPM, for that purpose. CEC also said that it had hired Ukrainian firm, Pro.mova, which will oversee preparation of a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative media monitoring surveys.