The members of the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics (CJE) approved two out of four the Council of Europe recommendations on major structural changes at the 15th General Assembly meeting.
The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics (CJE) is aimed at raising social accountability of media by complying with professional and ethical standards and developing self-regulation mechanisms. CJE is so far the only organisation in Georgia uniting media actors. In response to challenges in sustainability and representativeness of the CJE, a set of recommendations on its institutional reform was developed with the Council of Europe support. Once approved by the CJE Director and the Council in October 2023, four set of major recommendations were presented to CJE members for further discussion and eventual approval at the General Assembly meeting in December 2023.
Most of the recommendations required amendments to the CJE Statute and thus, the members had opportunity to discuss the finalised package of the amendments at the annual General Assembly, gathering up to 120 persons.
As a result of voting, the Assembly approved two out of four proposed amendments: the suspension of membership and annual membership fee. Namely, the General assembly agreed to legitimise the membership suspension mechanism by introducing the specific conditions for joining of new and dismissal of existing members. This is an important milestone enabling flexibility in decision-making and ensuring engagement of the CJE members. The membership fee mechanism was introduced as well. While the specific fee is yet to be identified and will be symbolic, it is an important development towards improved sustainability of the CJE, which currently operates thanks to donor contributions only.
Two remaining recommendations related to the engagement of media organisations (ensuring the Charter’s expansion) and distinction between the Board and Complaints Commission (avoiding conflict of interest between the executive and governing bodies) remain to be discussed further.
The activity was organised in the framework of the Project “Strengthening Media Freedom, Internet Governance and Personal Data Protection in Georgia”, which is funded by the Council of Europe 2020-2023 Action Plan for Georgia.
