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Vakhtang Komakhidze Sues Real-TV

May 24, 2010
Investigating journalist Vakhtang Komakhidze, who is in Switzerland and requests political asylum there, sued Georgian TV-Company “Real-TV” at the court for “slander and degrading his honor and dignity.”

The suit prepared in the name of Komakhidze and his son was brought to the Tbilisi City Court by the Legal Aid Center for Georgian Media within the Georgian Young Lawyers Association on May 19.

The suit states that on February 9, 2010, the telecast released by the Real-TV was dedicated to the decision of Vakhtang Komakhidze to search political asylum abroad; the telecast provided “extremely false and calumniating facts.”

Komakhidze stated in February from Switzerland that he requested political asylum because of threats against him and his family members. The journalist said the law enforcement officers started to threaten him after December of 2009 after his visit in Tskhinvali where he was collecting materials for his investigation film.

TV-Company “Real-TV” dedicated a telecast to Komakhidze’s decision with the title “Black Stains from the Past.” More precisely, the TV-Company alleged that Komakhidze had criminal record; he was judged for “having robbed old neighbor.” The same reportage alleged that Komakhidze was dismissed from the Ministry of Security because of “financial machinations”; that he has many children and had two wives together. “The first family abandoned by the journalist lives in the orphanage in Mtskheta; the others are living in different places,” alleged the telecast.

According to the GYLA, who represents the Komakhidzes at the court, the suit is enclosed with corresponding evidence which prove that the telecast of the Real-TV breached the balance between freedom of expression and right to inviolability of personal life.

“Violation of the balance breached the right of private life and personal dignity envisaged under Article 18 of the Civil Code of Georgia,” stated the GYLA which requests the Real-TV “to reimburse the damage for the violation of personal violability” in the suit.

Civil Georgia

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