Decision N 186
February 4, 2018


Head of Council: Giorgi Mgeladze

Council Members: Lia Zakashvili, Nino Jafiashvili, Giorgi Suladze, Gela Mtivlishvili, Maia Merkviladze, Tea Zibzibadze, Maia Mamulashvili, Tamar Uchidze

Applicant: Georgian Association of Social Workers

Respondents: Tamar Dolenjashvili and Tamar Baghashvili

Description

Georgian Association of Social Workers applied to the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics. They thought that Rustavi 2 news show “Kurieri” of 14th of January, 2018 violated 1st principle of the Charter. The topic was about difficult socioeconomic situation of a person.

Specifics of case hearing:

Council members decided on the case by separately stating their position, not at the meeting. According to Charter rules: Council members can state their opinion about the case/participate in Council’s work via electronic communication means [social network, e-mail, online, video and audio calls].

Findings of the Council

According to the first principle of the Charter “a journalist must respect the truth and society’s right to get precise information”. The applicant said that the journalist gave public incorrect information which was repeated by the host too. Specifically, when talking about the registration of people under social protection in the register, they said the responsible person for doing this was a “social worker”, not “social agent”. The applicant said: “Social worker is a professional, who studies social worker profession academically and works with different target groups to strengthen them and their wellbeing. A social agent is a position, which can be taken by a person of any profession and their only function is to register socioeconomic status of the families”. Respondent journalist agreed that she mixed up the terms and said “social worker” instead of “social agent”.

Definitions of a social worker and social agent are presented in different normative acts too. After approving “The rules of formation of united database of families under social protection” the term “social agent” changed and it is named “The responsible person of the agency”, but the definition stayed the same: “a person with specific right, who studies the socioeconomic situation of a family according to the rules and evaluates them”. “Social worker” according to the law of social protection is “A person who has responsibilities in guardianship and care institution”.

The institution of social worker needs support from the society and from the government. Therefore, any mistakes, which increase negative attitudes towards this institution in public, are important and journalists must be extremely careful when reporting about it. Based on everything, Council decided that the journalist violated the first principle of the Charter.

Council thinks it is appropriate to discuss one more circumstance. Specifically, “social agent” was called “social worker” also by a host of “Kurieri” – Tamar Baghashvili. Applicant thought that she also violated the first principle. Tamta Dolenjashvili told the Council that the report and the text for the news show were prepared by her. Any decision made by the Council is recommendatory and aims to improve journalistic ethics standards. When making a decision, it is important to provide argumentation and proof of why specific action violated the ethics, not just say whether the principle was violated or not. The aim of Charter Council is to improve ethical journalism, not to say who was “guilty” of violating principles. Therefore, in this case, we found that Tamta Dolenjashvili gave the text to Tamar Baghashvili and Council does not think it is appropriate to find Tamar Baghashvili guilty of violation too. This would be just formality and would not come in accordance to Charter Council functions and goals.

Council wants to also mention that the host is not just a person who reads texts, she is a journalist, who is obligated to respect the truth and society’s right to get precise information. Therefore, hosts need to participate in rechecking the information provided by journalists to avoid mistakes such as this one.

Resolution

Based on everything mentioned above:

• Tamta Dolenjashvili violated Charter’s first principle.
• Tamar Baghashvili did not violate Charter’s first principle.