Media Development Foundation, MDF begins to publish further results of media monitoring implemented during the fall, 2011. During the period of further two weeks the foundation is planning to publish 6 reports. We want to remind you that the monitoring was implemented with the support of "Open Society – Georgia Foundation, OSGF” within the frames of the project that is being carried on by Media Development Foundation, MDF – " Media Monitoring – For Professional Media”.

Today we present the monitoring results on the theme – Coverage of Public Opinion Survey in Georgian Media and Media Standard. The author of the research is media-expert Ketevan Mskhiladze.

The goal of the research was the clarification of how Georgian media keep to local regulations and international standards while covering public opinion surveys. The goal of the norms is to make the opportunity of realistic analysis through researches and prevent the possibility of becoming public survey the instrument for manipulations the probability of which is high in case of neglecting professional standards. In this report are reviewed the existing international and local regulations. On the basis of the selected criteria proceeding form these regulations is discussed the relevance of research covering. In addition we’ve set out in a separate as indicator the missed themes containing the findings of the research towards which the public interest could be and some media means avoided covering of that themes. Also we should analysis which themes were prioritized by informational media means. In case of agencies together with themes special attention was paid to what are the issues brought up in the title.

The following media means were the subjects of the research:

Television: Imedi, Rustavi 2, Public Broadcasting Television, Maestro, Kavkasia.

Informational agencies: InterpressNews (IPN), GHN, ExpressNews (EPN).

The period of the monitoring was defined up to the publication dates of three research results: October 10-11, December 7-8, 2011.

The subject of the research was the coverage of further researches:

1.The public opinion survey carried on during the period of September 9-21 and published on October 10 by American National – Democratic Institute (NDI);

2. The survey carried on the period of October 27 to November 11 by The Institute of Palling & Marketing (IPM) ordered by American International Republican Institute (IRI) available on October 7 on TV company Rustavi 2;

3.The research ordered by Georgian Development Research Institute (GDRI) and carried out by Institute of Social Studies and Analysis (ISSA) on November 11-12 presented on December 8. The survey revealed that almost every media mean violates with different doses the standards of the coverage of public survey.

The detailed monitoring results can bee seen in attached file.

Coverage of Public Opinion Survey in Georgian Media and Media Standard (available in Georgian)