Web Portal on Human Rights in Georgia

Board of Trustees of the Public Broadcaster, which also is the board of appeals, has satisfied the complaint lodged by Open Society Georgian Foundation.  The Board has decided 28 May that journalists have violated the principle of impartiality in Moambe newscast of the First Channel.

The complaint concerned 14 February 2012, 8 p.m. Moamde in which journalists spoke about the research conducted by financial support from Open Society Georgia Foundation.  Tamar Kordzaia, the Foundation lawyer told media.ge that in the report the recipient Company and the Foundation were accused in conducting the research unprofessionally.

“In the report they did not specify that the Foundation is not responsible for the content of a research.  Even the opposite, the journalist said that the Foundation funds unqualified researches.  They did not ask anything about the research quality to the Foundation, violating the principle of impartiality,” Tamar Kordzaia stressed.

Due to the fact that the Foundation appealed to the self-regulatory board of the PB (headed by the PB Director General Gia Chanturia) and requested publicizing of the decision at the broadcaster website.  The self-regulatory board did not satisfy the complaint and the Foundation lodged a new one to the board of appeals.  The Board of Trustees annulled Director General’s decision and decided that the aforementioned report has violated the principle of impartiality, as the position of the Foundation was not shown.  As requested by the Open Society Georgian Foundation, the given decision has been posted at the GPB website.