The right to one's image is control over who may record and distribute your face or voice, when and how. Georgia has no standalone image-rights statute: the general basis comes from civil-law personality protection, while the concrete media rules are written into the Broadcasting Law. This page explains when filming requires consent, when recording is justified by public interest and how covert recording is regulated.
The Framework: Privacy in Broadcasting
The relevant provisions of the Broadcasting Law establish a general prohibition: it is impermissible for a broadcaster to infringe the right to inviolability of a person's private life. Interference by a broadcaster in a person's private life, or in the activity of a legal person, may be justified only where it aims at protecting the lawful interests of society, is a proportionate means of achieving that aim, and the protected good outweighs the damage caused. Those three conditions — lawful aim, proportionality and the balance of goods — are the test every disputed recording must pass. Foreign "right of publicity" models have no analogue in Georgian law: commercial use is a matter of agreement, while the basis of protection arises from Georgian norms.
Consent to Video-Audio Recording
When preparing a video-audio recording on the territory of a public or private institution, the consent of the authorised person of that institution is necessary, except where preparing the material without permission is justified by public interest. A stricter rule covers a listed set of institutions: in an educational institution, hospital, penitentiary establishment, police department or ambulance, preparing a story requires consent from both the authorised person and the persons being filmed, again subject to the public-interest exception. In public places a broadcaster may take interviews and film people for news programmes without prior warning, but before transmission the broadcaster must satisfy itself that a frame, word or action recorded at a place of public gathering does not carry such elements of private life as would require the person's prior consent. Additional protection covers information about a person's place of residence, telephone or other personal contact data — it may be disclosed only where a public interest exists. A person who incidentally got into the material needs no permission at all.
Victims and Tragedies on Screen
The law demands particular care toward persons affected by accidents or personal tragedy: a broadcaster must not film or distribute such material, including material obtained at places of public gathering, where it infringes the inviolability of private life, absent the consent of the appropriate person. It is impermissible to show an injured person, a corpse or a mutilated body, blood and similar scenes without significant editorial justification, and filming must take place only from a certain distance so that identification of the injured person is impossible. Identifying a deceased person, a victim of an accident or of violence is impermissible until the fact has become known to the family. A further boundary concerns reuse: the broadcaster must take all reasonable measures so that reuse of material for a different purpose or in another programme causes no unjustified infringement of privacy.
The Rules on Covert Recording
Obtaining or transmitting information by a covert method is justified only in a closed list of cases: where the event is a subject of public interest, there is a well-founded assumption that new evidence will be obtained, and this is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the programme; for conducting sociological research on matters of public interest, where the attitude or view under study cannot be revealed otherwise; and for comedy and entertainment programmes where covert recording is a customary method and does not constitute gross interference in private life. Even in the last case, material obtained by covert methods in entertainment and comedy programmes must not be used without the consent of the recorded person — consent is required unless identification of the person in the material is impossible. Covert recording on territory in private ownership may be justified only by public interest, including a well-founded assumption that evidence of a crime will be discovered. Covert methods include leaving recording equipment or a running camera on privately owned territory without the resident's full informed consent, recording a telephone conversation without informing the respondent, or deliberately continuing a recording when the other party believes the process is over. A broadcaster may record a telephone conversation where, before the call, it introduced itself, explained the purpose and stated that the call is being recorded and may be published; otherwise consent must be obtained before broadcasting the material. Broadcasting covertly recorded material is possible only where the action is justified, and a fact resulting from the editing of a covert recording must be reflected in the programme accurately and fairly.
Does every filmed person need to give consent?
No — no permission is needed from a person who incidentally got into the frame or cannot be unequivocally identified; on an institution's territory, however, the consent of the authorised person is required.
May filming take place in a school or hospital?
Only with both consents — from the authorised person and from the persons being filmed — unless the recording is justified by public interest or the persons cannot be identified.
When is covert recording permitted?
For a subject of public interest with an assumption of new evidence and a need for accuracy; for sociological research; and in entertainment-comedy formats, where use of the material still requires the recorded person's consent.
What is the public-interest test?
Interference is justified where it aims at protecting society's lawful interests, is proportionate, and the protected good outweighs the damage caused.
How We Help on Legal.ge
The Legal.ge team assists both media and private persons on image-rights questions. We assess whether a specific recording or publication was justified, check whether consent is required for your project, and defend your rights where you were filmed without permission or where material has been reused. Contact us for a consultation — we will prepare a safe plan for both filming and protection.