MASARYK UNIVERSITY Department of International Relations and European Studies Faculty of Social Studies “The democratization process of Georgia and governments attitude towards mass media” MASTER’S THESIS Bachana Kuprashvili Supervisor: Mgr. Hubert Smekal, Ph.D UČO: 432430 Study Field: European Politics Year of enrolment: 2014 Brno, 2017 I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own independent scholarly work. All references contained within it have been correctly cited and the original authors acknowledged. No material other than that listed has been used. Brno, 2017 Bachana Kuprashvili ………........ Annotation The following paper sets out to make research about the democratization process of Georgia and the attitude of Mikheil Saakashvili’s government towards media. Despite the fact that Saakashvili was the starting point of democratic transition of Georgia, we must highlight the strong censorship and control of media during his presidency. During the presidency of Eduard Shevardnadze who is known to be a non-democratic president, mass media was much freer than during the presidency of Saakashvili who created democratic institutions in the country and according to the many surveys, he was the creator of the first democratic steps in Georgia. The research question of my master’s thesis is: Can Mikheil Saakashvili be viewed as a fully democratic president considering media freedom in Georgia during his presidency? To better understand how the situation in the country has changed in past years, I will also review and analyze the attitude of Saakashvili's predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze, towards media. My consideration is that due to the non-democratic political situation in Georgia and the non-existence of democratic institutions there, Shevardnadze’s main tactic was to ignore criticism of his practices, while in case of Mikhail Saakashvili the process of democratic transition, the existence of new democratic institutions and the goal of strengthening of international prestige stipulated the activation of strong censorship of mass-media as it was directly linked to domestic and international prestige and therefore to his portrayal as a competent leader. Key words: Democratization, Democracy, Georgia, Mass media, Media freedom, Saakashvili Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 6 2 Research Methodology ....................................................................................................... 8 3 Freedom of Speech as a normative principle of media activities ....................................... 9 4 Relationship between free media and liberal democracy.................................................. 12 4.1 Indications of free media in a democratic country .................................................... 13 5 Mind Control Theories ...................................................................................................... 16 5.1 Walter Lippmann ....................................................................................................... 16 5.2 Edward Bernays ......................................................................................................... 17 5.3 Sergei Guriev, Daniel Treisman ................................................................................ 19 6 Media market of Georgia .................................................................................................. 20 6.1 Imedi .......................................................................................................................... 20 6.2 Rustavi2 ..................................................................................................................... 20 6.3 Other TV channels ..................................................................................................... 20 7 Georgia before the Rose Revolution ................................................................................. 22 8 The Rose Revolution in 2003 ........................................................................................... 26 9 Georgia after the Rose Revolution .................................................................................... 29 10 Freedom of the media in Georgia .................................................................................. 34 10.1 Government of Georgia’s violent dispersal of Imedi Television .............................. 37 10.2 Media Freedom Index ................................................................................................ 40 11 Further media transformation during Saakashvili’s period ........................................... 43 11.1 Media picture construction of Eduard Shevardnadze and Mikheil Saakashvili ........ 46 11.2 Main instruments used against media ........................................................................ 50 11.3 Does Mikhail Saakashvili still interfere media? ........................................................ 51 12 Interview with former State Minister of Georgia, Guram Absandze ............................ 54 13 Media-censorship and its effect on domestic and international prestige as well as public opinion on government’s shortcomings ................................................................................... 57 14 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 61 15 Annex ............................................................................................................................ 64 16 List of References .......................................................................................................... 65 17 List of Graphs ................................................................................................................ 77 1 Introduction “The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that is power. Because they control the mind of the masses”, - (Malcolm X, 2010, p. 199). The media plays an important role in the political life of society. The role of media in a democratic political system is determined by how well it can understand and analyze the current processes and ensure the transparency of government’s activities. Currently in Georgia, mass media is one of the most important social institutions, therefore it ideally should contribute in the development of democratic steps of the country. After the Rose Revolution, Mikheil Saakashvili and his young government began the country’s development. They are known as starting point of democratic transition of Georgia (Tatum, 2009). It seems to be mostly true in some aspects, but ultimately fails to be so as the government later started to control national media and imposed censorship on its content (Papava, 2006). As a result, many people were harmed as they tried to oppose the censorship and other undemocratic practices (Human Rights Watch, 2007). For a democratic country it is necessary have the freedom of speech and unbiased media (Barendt, 2005). However, Saakashvili has used different approaches, which did not fall within the scope of democracy. November 7, 2007 is a clear example of Saakashvili’s government of Georgia not hesitating to violate freedom of the speech in the country by dispersing independent media channel “Imedi”, which used to serve as the main avenue for criticism of Saakashvili's policies. It is obvious that his party, “National Movement” has played significant role in the development of some liberal institutions and managed to change many things that led to the country’s prosperity. But, if we talk about the media and freedom of speech, in this regard the government acted undemocratically. During the presidency of Eduard Shevardnadze, situation was very different. He was known as corrupted and non-democratic president who has created the system which was anti-liberal (Stefes, 2008). Economically, country was in difficult situation and had a high rate of unemployment. It should be emphasized that country had several media channels and the government was trying to have an influence on it to cover the shortcomings of their political behavior. As we have already mentioned media was not free, but there were fewer incidents of violence against media representatives than during the presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili, who was called to be a starting point of democratic transition of Georgia (Kokashvili, 2014). For 6 this reason, I want to examine to which extent can be Mikheil Saakashvili viewed as a democratic president considering the media freedom situation during his presidency. Great political and historical figures think, that those who control the media, control the whole country. Indeed, modern politics is connected to the mass media and they may influence each other (Street, 2010; Chomsky, 2002). Media creates a unique space for monitoring the political processes, so that is why it played an important role in the development of the country, especially after the “Rose Revolution”. The thesis can be perceived as a review and research of both government’s actions in terms of democracy and freedom of media. I will start my work with a discussion of the importance of free media in liberal democracy. In like manner, I will name some of the theories which aim to form the opinions of country’s citizens and by doing so to control them. All of that by manipulating media and utilizing propaganda.