Tamar Bochorishvili, journalist at magazine Reitingi violated 1st principle
31.01.2018
According to the application, Reitingi published a Vox Pop video on their Facebook page, where they asked respondents about how many times they had sex in one night. The video was titled: “The most I had sex in one night was 13... it was a record” – a “confession” of Georgian girl, which is very popular in social networks”. The video has thumbnail of the applicant Nino Vezdeni. She had participated in the pox pop but is not the author of the quote in headline. In her opinion the combination of the photo and the headline created impression that it was her quote, which caused her to be critiqued and offended by the audience. After several hours of the video being posted, the applicant contacted Reitingi, which corrected the video and then deleted it.

The Council discussed the case online and decided that the first principle, on accuracy, was violated. The Council noted that deletion/correction of the material does not solve the problem of ethical nature. Providing incorrect photo to the quote, which resulted in discretization of the person is a severe negligence. Therefore, just the correction or deletion of the material is not an adequate reaction. The journalists had to clearly state that they made a mistake, describe it and make sure the readers understood what really happened. Therefore, the Charter decided that the fifth principle, on correction, was violated too.