Decision
27 May, 2018


Head of the Council: Giorgi Mgeladze

Council Members: Lika Zakashvili, Giorgi Suladze, Tamuna Uchidze, Maia Mamulashvili, Nino Jafiashvili

Applicant: Giorgi Kalatozishvili

Respondent: Lela Lobzhanidze

Description Part 

Giorgi Kalatozishvili applied to the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics. He thought that the article “Horrible incident in Kareli – young man killed a neighbor with an axe while under influence of marijuana” – published on trialeti.ge violated the 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 11th principles of the Charter. The article in question was about attempted murder of a person in Kareli.

Applicant attended the hearing. Respondent journalist answered Council’s questions via phone call. The applicant withdrew the violation of 7th rule application during the hearing.

Motivational Part 

According to the 1st principle of the Charter – A journalist must respect truth and the society’s right to get accurate information. First version of the headline [it was changed afterwards] was the following: “Horrible incident in Kareli – young man killed a neighbor with an axe while under influence of marijuana”. Article said that Trialeti had additional information about this fact. According to Trialeti’s information, accused was under influence of Marijuana when he committed the crime. They said that they had a reliable source, who told them that the lady entered the house to help him, when the incident happened.

The accused says that he was not thinking clearly when committing the crime. The exclusive interview was given to Trialeti by his acquaintance. “He was hallucinating, thought that he was fighting a demon instead of neighbor. When he came to awareness, this was the only thing he remembered and he was regretting the incident” – said the acquaintance. Charter Council investigated and found out that the Ministry of Internal Affairs officially declared that the accused was not under influence of psychoactive drugs when the crime was committed. Charter thinks, that the headline where it was said that the “young man killed a neighbor with an axe while under influence of marijuana” was not checked, therefore, publishing the only source [“acquaintance of the accused”] without verification violates the first principle of the Charter, when afterwards Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that he was not under influence of drugs.

According to the 3rd principle of the Charter: “Journalist should only share information based on the facts’ of which the source is checked. Journalist should not hide important facts, should not falsify documents and information”. Applicant said that before the article was published, the journalist contacted the Ministry of Internal Affairs representative and knew their position, but hid the information in the article. Council contacted the representative of MII – Ledi Okropiridze, who confirmed that she had a dialogue with the journalist before the article was published, but she also said that the journalist did not ask her about the drug use, therefore, it was not confirmed, that the journalist knew the information. The fact that the journalist did not check the information is the violation of the first principle, not the third [hiding facts].

According to the 5th principle of the Charter – “Media is obligated to correct the incorrect information, which misleads the society”. It is a fact, that the article was corrected after being published, specifically, the phrase “young man killed a neighbor with an axe while under influence of marijuana” was put in quotation marks and the paragraph in which it was said that the accused was under drug influence ended with the phrase: “The Ministry of Internal Affairs does not confirm this”. Charter thinks that the article was not corrected according to the standards of the ethical journalism. Putting a phrase in quotation marks, does not mean that the reader will not be misguided. The addition of the phrase did not contain the idea, that the first information was not verified and then they corrected it. Because the correction was not up to standards, Charter decided that the 5th principle was violated.

According to the 11th principle of the Charter: “journalist must consider the following as a grave professional crime: misrepresentation of facts”. Applicant thinks that the journalist shared incorrect information on purpose. As with the 3rd principle discussion, it was not proven, that the journalist knew the MII’s position beforehand; therefore, the violation of the 11th principle was not proven.

Resolution Part: 

Based on the information provided above:

• Lela Lobzhanidze violated Charter principles 1 and 5.
• Lela Lobzhanidze did not violate Charter principles 3 and 11.