The material in question was about “Troll Factory” operating during the pre-election period. In the video confidential respondent said that Lela Kurdghelashvili had a close connection to them. Lela Kurdghelashvili directly applied to Charter and denied any connection. She said that the journalist and her colleagues knew that she was the editor of the webpage “ S Persona”.

Charter decided that the 1st (accuracy) 3rd (hiding the facts), 5th (correction) and 11th principles (distortion of the facts) were violated, because the video was based on one source, there was no opinion voiced from the accused, Lela Kurdghelashvili and therefore, her participation in trolling was not proven. Moreover, several days prior to this the same journalist had prepared similar material, where Lela Kurdghelashvili denied any connection with the trolling group. The journalist did not use this recording for a balance in the new material and did not show her position at all.

The applicant attended the hearing. The respondent journalist did not cooperate with the Charter.

The decision is available here