With the aim to support the Georgian National Communications Commission and the Georgian media outlets during the pre-elections period, Council of Europe held the second round of training on the media coverage in the run up of the elections campaign. The event has been organised within the framework of the EU/CoE Joint Project “Promoting Freedom, Professionalism and Pluralism of the Media” and was organised on 18 September. Representatives of the regional media outlets operating in minority populated regions who are playing crucial roles for local population in providing the news in minority languages were taking part in the training.

The training was attended by the journalists’ working in Samtskhe Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli regions representing the community radios such as Marneuli and Nor,  Parvana TV from Ninotsminda, ATV station and the online outlets Jnews.ge from Akhalkalaki.

The CoE expert presented the main principles and provisions of the election manual prepared with Council of Europe expert support in accordance with the best European standards and the Georgian legislation. During the training the expert explained the definitions and the requirements concerning the rules of the equal and transparent allocation of the political advertising by the media outlets, legal and ethical farmworkers of organizing and holding the pre-election debates as well as news, current affairs and political programs including the methods how to ensure impartiality, equity, due accuracy and balance in these programs. Finally, the expert reviewed the scopes and methodology of conducting the quantitative and qualitative media monitoring by various organizations, including the Georgian National Communications Commission and other institutes from the civil society.

_{The event is organised within the framework of the joint CoE/EU Program “EU/CoE Joint Project Promoting freedom, professionalism and pluralism of the media”. The project was launched in January 2015 and aims to improve freedom, independence, pluralism and diversity of media, to review media legislation and regulation to bring these in line with European standards, including ethical standards for media professionalism as well as to support the implementation of legal frameworks, including remedial actions and to promote the safety of journalists.}