Parliament failed once again to compose new board of the Georgian Public Broadcaster after electing only one new member on January 23 and voting down candidates named by UNM parliamentary minority group and Adjara Autonomous Republic’s legislative body.

It was the second round of voting after the first one in December failed to produce new board as lawmakers snubbed most of the 27 candidates, which were vetted and proposed for confirmation by a selection commission, which was made up of media and civil society representatives.

The work of this selection commission, established by the Parliament itself, was widely hailed as transparent and professional and rejection of 27 candidates for nine vacant board seats, selected by this commission, triggered protest of many media and civil society groups.

GD parliamentary majority group and lawmakers outside the majority group, including those from UNM parliamentary minority, were each eligible to pick and nominate three candidates out of 27 proposed by the selection commission. But GD named only one candidate – Natela Sakhokia of the Tbilisi-based think-tank Strategic Research Centre, who was endorsed in the first round of vote in December.

UNM picked two candidates – one of them Ketevan Mskhiladze, an editor of Tabula news magazine’s English edition, was endorsed in the first round and another one – Ninia Kakabadze, a media and film critic, was voted down. Kakabadze’s was re-nominated by UNM for the second round, but she again failed to garner enough votes as GD lawmakers refused to support her nomination. In the second round Kakabadze needed at least 50 votes to be confirmed as new member of the GPB’s board; although UNM has 51 lawmakers, not all of them were present at the January 23 session so at least six GD MPs’ support was needed to endorse Kakabadze, who garnered 44 votes against 45.

Unlike first round, this time UNM wanted to fully use quota allocated for lawmakers outside the parliamentary majority group and nominated Darejan Javakhishvili, a clinical psychologist, as its third candidate. But nomination was made too late; according to the law respective stakeholders should have nominated candidates for the second round within ten days after the first round of vote was held on December 27. Parliamentary speaker Davit Usupashvili said before the vote that although he personally highly respects Darejan Javakhishvili, it was impossible to put the nomination on vote because of procedural violations.

According to the law local legislative body of Adjara Autonomous Republic, Supreme Council, is eligible to pick one out of 27 candidates, vetted by the selection commission. The Supreme Council, where GD has majority of seats, voted for Geno Geladze, a chairman of Batumi-based non-governmental organization Institute of Democracy, but he was voted down by the Parliament in the first round. The Supreme Council nominated Geladze again for the second round, but he was again rejected on January 23 by the GD majority group in the Parliament; Geladze received 44 votes, six short of required, against 34.

The only candidate, who was confirmed on January 23 was Lela Gaprindashvili, a professor of philosophy at the Tbilisi State University and a gender specialist, who was nominated by the Public Defender.

Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili was eligible to pick and propose to Parliament two out of 27 candidates. In the first round of voting in December, the Parliament confirmed only one nomination made by the Public Defender – Marina Muskhelishvili, a director of Tbilisi-based think-tank Centre for Social Studies; Gaprindashvili was voted down. The Public Defender re-nominated Gaprindashvili for the second round and this time she was endorsed with 117 votes as both GD and UNM lawmakers supported her.

According to the law new competition has to be announced to select candidates to fill remaining five vacant seats in GPB’s board of trustees.

On January 21 a group of Tbilisi-based foreign diplomats released a statement and called for implementing a relevant law in such a way that “a professional and independent” GPB’s board is appointed.

“The Ambassadorial Working Group (AWG) closely follows the latest developments related to the media environment in Georgia. We take note of the adoption of amendments in 2013 to the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting regulating the selection of the Board of Trustees at the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB),” reads the statement by the ambassadorial group, which mainly brings together Tbilisi-based diplomats from OSCE participating states.
 
“We believe that the law must now be implemented in such a way that a professional and independent Board of Trustees at the GPB is appointed, and the Georgian media environment is further reinforced.”

“The selection committee established by the Parliament has vetted nominees and selected a list of 27 candidates in a transparent and rigorous manner, in accordance with the requirements of the law.”

“As the world looks for Georgia to uphold the democratic ideals of pluralism, media freedom and transparency, we look forward to seeing the selection process completed by the Parliament, as intended by the law,” reads the statement.

Civil society groups were campaigning actively ahead of the second round of vote in the Parliament in an attempt to convince lawmakers to appoint new board members from those 27 candidates, which were vetted by the selection commission.