Georgia’s Communications Commission has fined the opposition-leaning TV channel Formula ₾2,500 ($940). The sanction came under legislative amendments adopted by the ruling party in 2025 that concerns the regulation of broadcasters’ coverage standards.
According to a Thursday statement from the Communications Commission, monitoring conducted in April found that ‘in Formula’s news programmes, there were instances of violations of the legal requirements for impartiality and balance, including the dissemination of personal opinions by hosts and journalists’.
In the Commission’s words, since the channel had already received a written warning for ‘similar violations’ over the past year, it was decided to impose a ‘minimum fine’.
Media Checker reported that the Commission monitored Formula’s news broadcasts during the period of 21–23 April.
Among the expressions used on air that the regulator considered to be violations were terms such as ‘the head of the Georgian Dream government’, Georgian Dream founder Bidzina ‘Ivanishvili’s government’, ‘the regime’s judiciary’, and ‘pro-government [TV] Rustavi 2’. The Commission considered these phrases to be a violation of the article on fairness and impartiality set out in the broadcasting law.
The phrases are frequently used by government critics, especially following the disputed parliamentary elections in October 2024, when many critics and opponents refused to recognise, or at least questioned, the legitimacy of the ruling Georgian Dream party and its government.
The regulatir also accused Formula of violating the principle of balance in its 22 April news broadcast, in a report concerning the demand by parents of patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) for access to medication. According to the Commission, in its coverage of the issue, Formula presented ‘only the parents’ position, while an alternative explanation or comment from the Ministry of Health was not included in the report’.
Formula told OC Media that they will appeal the decision after it is formally delivered to them
Before imposing a fine, the Commission warned Formula, as well as opposition TV channel Pirveli, and two pro-government channels, Imedi and POSTV, saying that they violated specific articles of broadcasting law. At that time, the authority identified only four violations for Imedi and seven for POSTV, while Formula was found to have 20 violations, and Pirveli 18.
Even earlier, in June 2025, the Commission found Pirveli and Formula to be in violation of the law after complaints from Georgian Dream, which accused them of breaching coverage standards due to anti-government language.
The ruling party amended the broadcasting law in spring 2025, regulating coverage standards for broadcasters both on air and on their social media platforms.
Under the previous legislation, the authority to respond to violations of broadcasting standards lay with self-regulatory bodies within the broadcasters themselves. However, according to the 2025 amendments, the same authority was also granted to a state body — the Communications Commission.
In January 2026, former Georgian Dream MP Goga Gulordava was elected chair of the Commission. He had previously served as a member of the Commission.
In March, after the UK sanctioned two Georgian pro-government TV channels, POSTV and Imedi — which was followed by a strong reaction from the authorities — the Commission stated that, whereas it had previously only responded to complaints, it would henceforth begin proactively enforcing compliance with broadcasting-related provisions in practice.
