Tbilisi. Board Chairman of IDFI Levan Avalishvili was recently featured in an article prepared by a popular online newspaper Netgazeti titled - Popularity and Mission of Russian TV Channels in Georgia.

''The article presented the results of a public opinion survey conducted by the Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC), according to which, almost half of all Georgians (47.7%) watch foreign television channels, with 75% of them engaging in this activity on a daily basis. The survey also found that the Russian channels of NTV and ORT are the most watched among all foreign television channels.

In his interview with Netgazeti, Levan Avalishvili, who is also a co-founder of an online platform - damoukidebloba.com that analyzes the propaganda and other instruments of soft power employed by Russian in Georgia, stated that: "This survey revealed that among Russian channels NTV and ORT are the most watched by the Georgian TV audience... This is not media. This is a branch of the Russian state apparatus. This is an instrument strictly controlled by relevant state agencies that have very specific goals.''

Source: idfi.ge