Future of Public Broadcaster Employees

17 July 2017

Today, on 17 July, every programme under the Public Broadcaster will be shut down [1]. Starting from the new season, the Public Broadcaster will air “Moambe”, programmes which were selected via competition, and social-political programmes prepared by the Public Broadcaster. However, the list of programmes has still not been released. Moreover, programmes on Channel 2 will also be shut down for an uncertain period of time. According to the Action Plan [2] of the Public Broadcaster, “a number of Channel 2 employees will be assigned to social-political programming in a variety of positions”. However, it is not clear what principle will be used to renew or terminate the employment contracts.

The future of the channels’ employees is even more unclear. Lack of transparency in the Public Broadcaster’s hiring policies has already been a problem [3] for many years. Although, in recent times, there has been a trend of growing number of competitions at the Public Counsel, the new management continues to make non-transparent decisions [4]. Firstly, GDS employees were transferred to the Public Broadcaster without any competitive process, and, secondly, consultants were appointed as soon as the new Director of the Public Broadcaster took office. These developments further complicated the management of human resources, and the transparency of the remuneration system and fair performance evaluation system at the Public Broadcaster.

Transparency International – Georgia requested information from the Public Broadcaster about the current and planned terminations carried out during the ongoing reorganisation. According to the information provided, as of 10 July, a week prior to the closure of the programmes, the employment of 54 persons was terminated and employment contracts were renewed with 58 persons. Among the 58 retained persons, 22 joined the project “Local Elections 2017”, which will last until November 2017. The letter [5] also notes that “the employee list has not been yet approved” and “a plan of the Public Broadcaster on its human resources is not public information.”

Transparency International – Georgia calls on the Public Broadcaster:

• To provide explanation as to what principles are used to renew and to terminate employment contracts;

• To immediately adopt the employee list;

The transparency of the human resources policy is important for:

• avoiding question marks concerning the human resources policy of the Public Broadcaster;

• informing the employees about their future;

• preventing tension in the Public Broadcaster, which may affect the productivity and editorial independence of the groups working for the Public Broadcaster

Transparency International – Georgia will closely follow the ongoing reform at the Public Broadcaster and is ready to provide free legal consultation to Public Broadcaster employees who believe that their terminations were illegal or unfair.

Remark: Due to technical malfunctions, we received a portion of the information at a later time – the number of employees whose contracts were renewed or whose employment was terminated was not indicated in the original text.

Tags: Media, Media Environment, Public Broadcaster