Civil.Ge

Civil.ge is a Tbilisi-based news media outlet run by the Georgian non-governmental organisation UN Association of Georgia (UNAG). It is a media outlet publishing news stories and analyses of Georgia's political and social life in Georgian, English, and Russian.

It was founded as a public service media project to provide civil society commentaries on ongoing events in Georgia to local readers and the international community. However, as it was the only English language media outlet in the early 2000s, in addition to commentary, soon Civil.ge responded to the audience's demand and started reporting on the news.

Today, Civil.ge is the largest freely accessible online media archive in Georgia and a crucial resource for scholars, researchers, and the wider audience.

Civil.ge's mission is embodied in its slogan: "News. Nuance. Context." The publication aims to inform the readers by covering the local and international context with nuance. The organisation is primarily supported by funding from donors, but its financial sustainability is still a challenge. Over the years, its uninterrupted functioning has been ensured by the financial and administrative support of its parent organisation (the UN Association of Georgia), which has covered between one and two-thirds of the outlet's total expenses annually.

While other online media initiatives were not able to survive longer than five or 10 years in Georgia, this support has sustained Civil.ge as the oldest digital native media outlet in the country. Even though it is still struggling to reach financial sustainability, the outlet remains true to its core values and serves as a public service for its audience, rather than chasing viewership or turning into a clickbait media outlet.