Decision

11 February 2019

Case № 252

Gigi Tevzadze v. Nika Gvaramia

Head of the council: Giorgi Mgeladze

Members of the Council: Gela Mtivlishvili, Kamila Mamedova, Lika Zakashvili, Irma Zoidze, Giorgi Suladze.

The applicant: Gigi Tevzadze

The respondent: Nika Gvaramia

Descriptive part

Gigi Tevzadze filed an application to the Council of the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics claiming that on 03 February 2019, Nika Gvaramia, the presenter of the TV program "Week Accents" on TV station "Rustavi2" violated the first principle of the Charter. The applicant attended the hearing of the case, and the respondent journalist neither attended the session nor submitted a reply.

Motivational Part

According to the first principle of the Charter, " A journalist should have a respect to the truth and to the right of the public for accuracy of information " The promlematic part of the television program "Week Accents" was related to the amendments in the education system, in particular, the amendments introduced/ to be introduced to the exams and the list of the compulsory examination subjects. Mostly Nika Gvaramia, the presenter, talked about the given issue, who was critical about the amendments and noted that "Sopo Gorgadze, is the head, who I do not know why refuses to communicate, I know her very well, she had worked during my time, I know exactly what this group is now, let’s not even talk about it, this is Siko Janashia, and this is Gigi Tevzadze among them. Simply saying this is the center of influence, Sopo Gorgadze is their center of influence, I had been the Minister of Education and I know how influence centers are distributed in the education and today's Minister is the center of influence of these people also," "Do I say it’s bad [he means the existence of the center of influence]? I do not say it's bad, I just point out the fact [he means Siko Janashia, Gigi Tevzadze, Sophie Gorgadze, Minister of Education being the center of influence], it is one center of influence." "Very strange phenomenon is Mr. Batiashvili [Minister of Education], the center of influence, to which he belongs I have already told you”.

From the episode, it is obvious that Nika Gvaramia determined Siko Janashia, Gigi Tevzadze, Sopho Gorgadze and Minister of Education as the group having the common interests. The overall speculation provided by Nika Gvaramia clearly shows that he links the amendments implemented/to be implemented in the education system to this group. The applicant argues that he does not relate himself to any center of influence and the information disseminated by Nika Gvaramia is far beyond the truth. According to the applicant, he does not want to be associated with any amendments implemented/ to be implemented in the field of education.

The Council also discussed whether Nika Gvaramia's statement, that Siko Janashia, Gigi Tevzadze, Sopho Gorgadze and Minister of Education are the center of influence, was his subjective assessment or he disseminated the information as the fact. In this case, the Council referred to Nika Gvaramia's statement, where he says that this is the "fact", and for the confirmation that Nika Gvaramia is the person who may know about the fact, he notes that "I had been the Minister of Education and I know how the influence centers are distributed in the education system".

None of the above-mentioned persons were given the opportunity in the program to comment on Nika Gvaramia's position, nor did Nika Gvaramia bring any evidence or circumstance that could support the "fact". Based on the foregoing, the Council believes that Nika Gvaramia showed disrespect to the right of the public to receive accurate information and therefore, violated the first principle of the Charter.

The Council deems incompatible with the first principle of the Charter Nika Gvaramia's another statement where he said that "in Georgia, university corruption cannot be returned, it still exists", as he did not indicate any references based on which he suggested that the corruption is still present, and it was not clear whether he was generalizing a particular case or he considered corruption as the characteristic feature of the universities. Such general statements, without any reference to specific facts, places under suspicion of corruption all persons who are employed and / or related to the university. The Council has already discussed an application in relation to “Week Accents” (the case of Dachi Tsaguria v. Nika Gvaramia) with the participation of Nika Gvaramia, where the latter noted that "Week Accents" is a authorized program, the format of which is different from the news program and the same standard may not be applied to the copyrighted program and news. The Council considers it reasonable to reiterate the same argument in this decision, by which the Council did not agree with Nika Gvaramia's position: "The authorized program is certainly different from the news release, but not in the part of ensuring the accuracy of facts. The author / presenter of a authorized program has more freedom to express his/her position, assessment, to support any person / opinion, political or economic direction, but as far as the authorized program completely falls within the journalistic activity, the presenter journalist shall bear the ethical responsibility to differentiate between the fact and unverified information, to disseminate only verified information as a fact, and respect the right of the public to accurate information."

Resolution

Based on the foregoing, it has been resolved that:

1. Nika Gvaramia has violated the first principle of the Charter.