Georgia

"The Rustavi News" Newspaper
$34,070
To support its publication in Rustavi, the fourth biggest city in Georgia and the capital of Kvemo-Kartli region. The program will allow the organization to continue improving the quality of reporting, and expand the paper to include a four-page Azeri language section, allowing the newspaper to reach the large Azeri population in the region. Rustavi News will provide a necessary independent source of information and expert analysis to the region.

American-Georgian Initiative for Liberal Education
$34,030
To develop the analytical skills and political and civic consciousness of Georgian youth. In conjunction with its liberal education program located on the campus of Ilia State University, AGILE will conduct public events in Tbilisi and three regional cities on democracy-related topics. Student participants will write articles and publish them in popular periodicals which will be made available on a webpage to be developed for this project.

Association "Studio Re"
$76,900
To produce 22 television shows that will be broadcast on Maestro Television in Tbilisi and 17 regional television stations throughout Georgia. The programs will provide an important forum for balanced and informed public debate of the most pressing issues in Georgian politics, including electoral and economic reform, human and ethnic rights, media independence, and gender equality. Studio Re will also host a two-day training on preparing video reports for 17 regional journalists from its partner stations.

Caucasus Centre for Civil Hearings
$31,730
To conduct mock public hearings on topics of local interest. CCCH will work with the Alliance of Women for Civil Society, an Azerbaijani NGO, and the Caucasus Center of Peacemaking Initiatives (CCPMI), an Armenian NGO, to organize four events in Tbilisi that will include participation from all three south Caucasus states. CCCH will hold five additional hearings for a Georgian, Russian, South Ossetian, and Abkhazian audience.

Cultural-Humanitarian Fund "Sukhumi"
$45,543
To promote women’s participation in politics in western Georgia. The organization will train activists in advocacy techniques and lobby local governments on issues affecting women in the regions. The organization will conduct monthly meetings of "Women Voters" clubs in provincial towns and rural villages, organize workshops, and conduct an advocacy campaign.

Democratic Society East Foundation
$45,156
To strengthen independent local newspapers in Georgia. The Warsaw-based Democratic Society East Foundation will work with 11 local and regional papers identified during an earlier NED-funded project to improve their financial sustainability by introducing an independent distribution system. The Foundation will organize a five-day study visit to Poland for representatives from the 11 publications to share best practices from local Polish newspapers and conduct a three-day training in Tbilisi for 22 of the papers' managers. Additionally, the Foundation's experts will provide online consultations to the publications over the course of the project.

Georgian Evaluation Association
$35,000
To document political party platforms and monitor the implementation of campaign pledges by elected parliamentarians. The organization will collect party platforms and campaign promises; assess the mechanisms by which these platforms were developed; compare positions across party lines; create a public database of electoral programs and pledges; monitor the implementation of these platforms; and publicize their findings.

Georgian Young Lawyers Association
$53,900
To monitor the electoral environment in Georgia in the period before the October 2012 parliamentary elections. GYLA will advocate for improvements to electoral law, train and support monitors in Tbilisi and seven regions of Georgia, and conduct legal aid and strategic litigation in the instance of serious electoral violations.

Human Rights Center
$54,950
To promote fairness in the Georgian elections and improve human rights practices. The Center will monitor and report on electoral violations during the October parliamentary elections and provide free legal aid in Tbilisi and three regional offices. The Center will conduct human rights advocacy, submit reports to the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe, and other international organizations, and file cases with the European Court of Human Rights. Finally, the organization will produce short documentary films about human rights.

Human Rights House - Tbilisi
$27,000
To support its media center, which will assist local human rights organizations and journalists. The media center will be used to increase the visibility of HRHT member organizations and their activities, to improve the professionalism of journalists, and to educate the public by expanding the availability of reliable information and raising awareness about important socio-political issues.

Independent Journalists' House
$29,470
To promote democratic ideas and values among youth in the Adjara Autonomous Republic of Georgia. IJH will host regular events and lectures by visiting experts at its Batumi press center, Press Cafe, which will be available for viewers as live and archived video, and adapted into newspaper articles. IJH will also work with youth volunteers to produce video news programs.

Internews Georgia
$29,850
To support the Media.ge website, a comprehensive resource for and about the Georgian media. Internews Georgia will compile and publicize its daily news bulletin on the media, including abuses against journalists, ownership issues, new programming and publications, and training and funding opportunities. Internews will also support thematic blogs on its website about the international coverage of events in Georgia, journalists' rights, professional standards, and society and media.

Levan Mikeladze Foundation
$33,340
To encourage youth participation in local advocacy initiatives. The foundation will develop a Georgian-language advocacy training manual, conduct trainings with student unions, and assist initiative groups in implementing local advocacy projects. The program will be carried out in four Georgian cities: Tbilisi, Telavi, Kutaisi, and Batumi.

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
$50,000
To enhance the transparency and integrity of Georgia's electoral process, NDI proposes a program aimed at strengthening ISFED's capacity to manage effective and credible long-term monitoring missions. This program will increase public confidence in electoral processes by supporting nonpartisan, domestic observation through supporting the Georgian civil society organization the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) in conducting long-term observation during the pre-election period.

Newspaper "Akhali Gazeti"
$19,290
To promote democratic ideas and values among citizens and civic activists in Kutaisi and the Imereti region of Georgia. Akhali Gazeti, a weekly newspaper in Kutaisi, will host regular events and lectures by visiting experts at its press center, which will be made available online in their entirety on video, and adapted into newspaper articles. The newspaper will develop live video streaming capabilities for its website.

NGO Abkhazia Info
$48,050
To support its radio talk show, "Dialogues," on the Tbilisi-based radio station, Ucnobi. The program will be aired six times per week for 45 minutes each day. The show will feature discussions between the hosts, guest experts, and callers about pressing socio-political issues in Georgia. Saturday programming will be dedicated exclusively to the topic of conflict resolution. Over the course of the year, 300 shows will be produced and broadcast.

Partnership for Social Initiatives
$51,250
To conduct an assessment of the course of reform in Georgia. The organization will conduct research, produce six analytical papers, conduct six small group discussions, and organize six roundtable discussions. PSI will also organize a training seminar, host a radio talk show, and continue developing its interactive website and blog.

Prague Independent Media Trainers Association o.s.
$29,839
To foster and develop independent media in Georgia's conflict-prone region of Abkhazia. PIMTA will organize a week-long study trip and training in Prague for ten editors of Internet and electronic media outlets from Georgia and Abkhazia. The training workshops will focus on sharing the Czech media-related transition experience, promoting more objective reporting, and strengthening relations between media outlets from both entities.

Public Advocacy
$34,450
To promote freedom of assembly and expression in Georgia. Public Advocacy will monitor public assemblies, document compliance with international and national standards, provide legal assistance to those facing charges related to their right to peaceful assembly, and conduct a public awareness campaign through radio programs, press conferences and public service announcements.

Soviet Past Research Laboratory
$28,850
To promote understanding and discussion of Georgia's Soviet legacy and the realities of totalitarianism societies. SovLab will collect and digitize archives documenting political repression during the Soviet era, record oral histories, and provide legal assistance to victims of Soviet repression who have not been compensated in accordance with Georgian law.

Studio GNS
$36,000
To broadcast a weekly news magazine on Maestro TV. The program, "Weekly Reportage" which broadcasts to up to 2 million people provides comprehensive investigations into topics frequently overlooked by other news outlets. Under this program, Studio GNS will devote particular attention to covering issues related to the fall 2012 parliamentary elections.

Transitions Online
$41,910
To develop the blogging and new media skills of independent journalists and civic activists in Georgia. The Prague-based Transitions Online (TOL) will work with Sourcefabric to hold a series of training workshops on new media, provide in-depth consultations, administer an equipment fund for up to four groups, consult with one independent television station on developing an interactive talk show with elected representatives similar to the popular Czech show "Hyde Park," and send two participants to TOL's New Media training course in Prague.

Tspress.ge
$24,630
To expand coverage of presidential and parliamentary elections on a network of regional news portals in Georgia. The Center produces tpress.ge, a regional news portal that covers Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and Adjara regions of Georgia. The Center will cooperate closely with three similar news portals that will each cover electoral developments in their respective regions, cross-publish important developments on each other’s sites and in the national media, and publish monthly bulletins to distribute throughout their regions.

Grant descriptions are from the 2012 NED Annual Report.