TBILISI, DFWatch – A new report concludes that some of the public service ads in Georgia contain a political message.

The report is based on observation of several TV stations and shows that public service ads don’t meets the standards and are in reality covert advertisement for or against certain political parties.

The Human Rights Center, which made the report, observed the political and social advertisements on six TV companies for about one month. The organization requested information from these TV companies, but received answer only from 3 of them.

The study shows that Maestro TV has not shown public service ads during primetime, while Channel 9 claims that they didn’t have public service ads at all for that period.

The public service ads aired on Georgian Public Broadcasting (GPB) were found to not meet the standards as such. Some of them are: Made in Georgia, I Love Tbilisi, and Free Internet from City Hall.

The media monitoring concludes that the video clip of Made in Georgia serves the interests of the government, as less than two months is left until an important election.

The video clip of I Love Tbilisi contains shots which emphasize the achievements of the current government.

The advertisement There is Good Internet in the City says that good internet begins with 5 megabytes. The number 5 is written on a red background, and according to the Human Rights Center, it makes an association with the ruling party, because their number on the ballot is 5 in every election.

Ucha Nanushvili, director of Human Right Center, says that the advertisement that the organization Georgia Not for Sale makes, is absolutely unethical and should be banned. He says that covert political advertisements are shown mostly on 3 TV companies: Imedi, Rustavi 2 and GPB.

Human Right Center will continue the monitoring and later prepare recommendations about how to improve the election environment in Georgia.