The Georgian National Communications Commission has issued a written warning to independent regional media outlet Radio Marneuli over a grant received from the U.S.-based international organization NED.
“32,542 GEL, which we were warned about, covered the four-month salaries of 12 staff members,” Radio Marneuli’s founder and director, Kamila Mamedova, told Batumelebi.
“The funds were received as part of a grant project and do not fall under the exceptions defined in Article 661, Paragraph 11 of Georgia’s Law on Broadcasting, such as commercial advertising, teleshopping, sponsorship, or product placement in programs. According to the law, it is prohibited for a broadcaster to receive direct or indirect funding from a foreign entity,” the Communications Commission stated.
According to Kamila Mamedova, the decision issued on January 22 represents the radio broadcaster’s second warning.
“The first warning came in November. We had a grant from Deutsche Welle for producing multimedia content for our website. I was confident that this did not relate to broadcasting. Yet, they immediately demanded the termination of the contract, which we had to comply with.
As for the NED grant, you know that their operations had been temporarily suspended. We had a two-year contract with NED. The first year of that contract ended in July, when NED won a court case in the U.S. and resumed work. Since the project was concluding, I took the full responsibility… You know the kind of crisis regional media faces.
So I received these funds and informed the Communications Commission that this was the final installment for the project. The only concession was that we were warned but not fined. The warning was issued because the funds are considered direct foreign funding.
The NED grant supported trilingual radio broadcasting, mainly covering staff salaries,” Kamila Mamedova told Batumelebi.
The parliament, whose legitimacy is disputed, adopted legislative changes on April 1, 2025, prohibiting broadcasters from receiving direct or indirect funding (monetary or in-kind) from foreign entities, except for commercial advertising, teleshopping, sponsorship, or product placement in programs.
The law also prohibits foreign entities from purchasing broadcasting services (except commercial advertising or product placement in programs) or directly or indirectly funding or co-funding program production or airtime.
Under the disputed law, a “foreign entity” is defined as a component of a foreign state authority, a person who is not a Georgian citizen, a legal entity not registered under Georgian law, or any organizational formation (including a foundation, association, corporation, union, or other type of organization) or other group of persons established under foreign or international law.
“Since the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is based in the United States, it qualifies as a foreign entity, and funds received from it constitute direct foreign funding,” the Communications Commission explained in today’s decision.
Radio Marneuli is a community radio station and independent media outlet in Georgia serving the diverse communities of Marneuli and the broader Kvemo Kartli region. Together with broadcasting, Radio Marneuli runs online media outlet – Marneulifm.ge – and produces multilingual journalism in Georgian, Azerbaijani, and Armenian, with a focus on civic engagement, minority rights, and local government accountability.
