Decision N 125

April 1, 2017


Head of Council: Giorgi Mgeladze

Members of Council: Jaba Ananidze, Nino Jafiashvili, Tazo Kupreishvili, Tea Zibzibadze, Tamar Uchidze.

Applicant: Tbilisi Mayor David Narmania and Tbilisi Municipality government

Respondent: Giorgi Gabunia and Maia Lomidze

Description 

Tbilisi Municipality Mayor David Narmania and Municipality government applied to Georgian Charter of Journalistic ethics. They thought that Rustavi 2 program “Kurieri P.S.” video about public restrooms in Tbilisi violated Charter principles 1, 3, 7 and 11. The show was aired on 12th of February, 2017. The host of the show was Giorgi Gabunia, author of the reporting – Maia Lomidze.

Applicant representatives attended the discussion. Giorgi Gabunia did not attend the discussion and did not provide a response. Maia Lomidze commented on social network Facebook. During the case review, the respondent violation of principles 7 and 11 was named to be Giorgi Gabunia, respondent of principle 3 – Maia Lomidze.

Findings of the Council

As was said, the piece was about the problem of public restrooms in Tbilisi. It was shown that some of them don’t function and are not in sanitary condition.

Following conditions were specified by the Council:

1. The author based the piece on state audit office conclusion, which said that:

• Some restrooms don’t function.
• The reason for this is nonexistent sewage system where they are placed, which points to incorrect planning while procurement.
• The agreement about maintenance of bathrooms is signed with “Merab Guldeni” on 21st of May of 2014 and LTD “Irk” on 12nd of June of 2014.

2. Author Maia Lomidze read this conclusion.

3. David Narmania was officially named in office on 2nd of August of 2014.

According to the first principle of the Charter: “Journalist must respect truth and public’s right to get correct information”.

The video was accompanied by Giorgi Gabunia’s text, where he said: “Unprecedented office of David Narmania decided to show some humanity and installed public restrooms in crowded parts of Tbilisi”. As was stated [facts 1.3 and 3], piece showed that the decision about public restrooms was made before David Narmania was appointed, therefore the sentence “Office of David Narmania decided” is not true and violated the first principle of the Charter. According to the principle 3 “Journalist can spread information based on approved sources. The journalist should not hide important facts, forge documents and information”.

Applicant talked about hiding fact that the decision about public restrooms was made by the previous government of Tbilisi.

Maia Lomidze herself approved that she knew the decision of State Audit office and therefore knew that the agreement was made by the previous government. The journalist underlined that choosing and installing public restrooms was made in places where there was no sewage system and therefore they could not be used. Sewage system problem was said to be the fault of Tbilisi government. It was implied that this government chose places for restrooms without considering the sewage system existence. According to this, the hiding of fact that the decision was made by the previous government was proven and it is the violation of the principle 3.

According to the principle seven of the Charter: “a journalist must understand the dangers of supporting discrimination by media. Therefore, he or she should do everything to avoid discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other kinds of views, national or social status and any other reason”. Applicant thought that seventh principle was violated by Giorgi Gabunia’s text, where he says: “maybe David Narmania forgot that he is the Mayer of the city and thinks that he is somewhere in the village, where restrooms are built on the big hole, without sewage system”. Charter council thinks that this text is a discrimination based on birthplace. Connecting David Narmania and restrooms with no sewage system is discriminatory and implies that what is normal in some places cannot be considered normal and satisfactory to the citizens of the capital city. Every person has rights to live their life with dignified conditions no matter where they live. The problems with the infrastructural or economic situation can cause people to have lacking conditions, but that does not imply that they are satisfied with them.

According to the principle 11 of the Charter: “Journalist has to consider following acts as a severe professional crime: deliberate distortion of facts”.

Applicant thought that Giorgi Gabunia deliberately spread misinformation. Council thinks that this was not the case. It is worth to mention that Giorgi Gabunia was not an author of the video and logically he may not have known that the decision was made before Narmania was in office. Council thinks that Giorgi Gabunia spread this information because he had subjective interpretations/evaluations and did not check the piece.

Resolution

According to the information above:

• Giorgi Gabunia violated principles 1 and 7.
• Maia Lomidze violated principle 3.
• Giorgi Gabunia did not violate principle 11.