The Council of Europe has supported the Charter of Journalistic Ethics of Georgia in organisation of the Annual Conference of the Alliance of Independent Press Councils of Europe (AIPCE Conference), which has been held in Tbilisi on 3-4 October 2019.

For the first time the conference took place in an Eastern European country. Up to 140 persons have attended the Conference making it one of the biggest events recently held in the field of media in Georgia. The Conference has been widely covered in mainstream as well as online media. 

The Conference brought together around 50 representatives of self-regulatory bodies, press ombudsmen and media experts from more than 20 European countries. Panel discussions covered the issues of media transition in the digital age; Artificial Intelligence in the media; media revenues. Council of Europe’s work and initiatives in the field of media in the digital age has been highlighted by respective staff and invited key-note speakers.

The Conference was open to Georgian media representatives. They were actively engaged in respective discussions and benefited from the exchange of best European practices on modern media management and self-regulation.  

Cristian Urse, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia, Nata Dzvelishvili, Executive Director of the Charter of Journalistic Ethics, Elina Grunstorm, Chair of the Council of Mass Media in Finland and Katerina Nicolaou, Secretary of the Media Complaints Commission of Cyprus opened the Conference.

In the framework of the AIPCE Conference, annual meeting of the Network of Self-Regulatory Bodies of six Eastern Partnership Countries and Russia took place. Network members exchanged best practices concerning various aspects related to journalistic ethics and agreed on procedural aspects related to further functioning of the Network.

The conference was organised within the framework of the Council of Europe project “Supporting Freedom of Media and Internet in Georgia”.