On January 27, 2017, the Public Defender of Georgia held a public debate on the information atmosphere in the regions densely populated by national minorities. The debate was aimed at promoting creation of an effective information system for national minorities through the engagement of ethnic minority groups, the media, state agencies and representatives of the public.

The population of the regions inhabited by national minorities gets basic information about the events ongoing in Georgia and throughout the world from the media outlets of the neighboring countries (Russia, Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan). In addition, the population of the rest of Georgia has very little information about the events taking place in the ethnic minority regions, their problems and challenges.

“Similar information environment hinders the process of civil integration and efficiency of the state programs promoting civil integration. In recent years the Public Defender has repeatedly addressed the Government of Georgia with proposals and recommendations to solve the abovementioned issue, which is reflected in the Public Defender's parliamentary report too”, - said the People's Defender.

It was noted at the meeting that the Public Broadcaster regularly prepares news programs on 5 minority languages; it also translates, with the support from the donor organizations, the news editions at 20:00 and 18:00 to the Armenian and Azerbaijani languages ​​and ensures digital broadcast to the Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti regions. The Public Defender appreciates the efforts of the Public Broadcaster, though he thinks that more activity, preparation of more news and other programs on minority languages is needed. At the same time, it is important the Government to support the creation of technical base for transmitting Georgian TV channels in the regions inhabited by ethnic minorities, in order to easily and effectively remove the language barrier and facilitate integration of the population.

Reports were presented at the meeting by Deputy State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality Petre Kankava, Coordinator of the Public Defender’s Council of National Minorities Koba Chopliani, Civil Integration Foundation Executive Director Zaur Khalilov and Editor of the information portal JNews, Rima Garibyan. The meeting was moderated by media expert Zviad Koridze.

The members of the Council of National Minorities noted that the Georgian media is basically indifferent towards the issues of national minorities; in addition, there are cases when the media publishes articles inciting disagreement between ethnic groups. At the same time, foreign countries, particularly the Russian media, carry out negative information activities in the minority settlements.

Deputy State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality Petre Kankava promised the Public Defender to study the painful issues and to take steps to solve them.

The public debates, funded by the EU project “Support to the Public Defender II”, are systematically held and give representatives of the society, governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations the opportunity to discuss the most important issues of the country.