On 17 February 2015, during his interview with Rustavi 2 TV, the former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, pointed out the fact that Russian media is circulating propaganda throughout the country. Mr Saakashvili stated: "Russian TV channels are now allowed to broadcast in Georgia."

FactCheck

inquired about the issue of Russian TV channels returning to broadcast on the territory of Georgia.

Discussions on the topic of terminating the broadcast of Russian TV channels by cable TV operators in Georgia have been very active since 2008 and the Russia-Georgia war. According to the statement made by the then Chairman of the National Security Council of Georgia, Kakha Lomaia, the government had been preparing to make a decision on banning Russian TV channels from broadcast on the territory of Georgia. According to Mr Lomaia, the goal of the Russian TV channels was to spread panic and fear among the Georgian population. Additionally, they were an instrument in the information war and spread disinformation about the events unfolding in the Tskhinvali region. Eventually, cable TV operators terminated the broadcast of every federally-owned Russian TV channel in Georgia and declared that this was a decision made voluntarily and without an order from the government.

According to the statement made by the then State Minister of Reintegration, Temur Iakobashvili: "Russian media represents an alternative weapon of murder." Mr Iakobashvili later clarified, however, that the Government of Georgia did not actually make a decision to ban Russian TV channels. The Georgian National Communications Commission also explained that it had not imposed any restrictions upon cable TV companies or internet providers. The operators themselves declined to make any comment in regard to this issue.

Information about Georgian cable TV operators returning Russian TV channels to their network repertoire began to appear from November 2012. In her interview with Iverioni,

Head of the Press Service of the Georgian National Communications Commission, Khatia Kurashvili, commented that Georgia no longer had problems with Russian TV channels returning to broadcast on its territory. The Commission’s only requirement was that the TV company have a licence and an official document confirming that it was granted permission to broadcast.

In order to obtain additional information on the decision of Georgian cable TV operators to return to broadcasting Russian TV channels, we also addressed the Georgian National Communications Commission and its Head of the Press Service, Khatia Kurashvili. Ms Kurashvili clarified for us that Russian TV channels have never broadcast in the country in the history of independent Georgia. The activities amounted to transit broadcast or rerun. She also indicated that vigorous research on this particular segment of the market has been ongoing since 2009. Specials meetings were held with local cable TV operators which were notified of the need to obtain respective licences and permits. The Commission then started actively monitoring whether or not the licence and permit requirements were being observed and issued fines to those operators which were not in compliance. After the first wave of fines, many cable TV operators started to switch off different TV channels en masse,

including the Russian ones. Ms Kurashvili added that positive results appeared following the Commission’s continued observation and monitoring in that operators started to conclude legal contracts and offer licenced products to their customers. Russian TV channels have been available for viewing in Georgia for the last three years.

Further in her interview with us, Khatia Kurashvili asserted that the Georgian National Communications Commission never made a decision to ban the broadcast of Russian TV channels on the territory of Georgia. She added that there is no legal norm in Georgia which could have been used to ban the broadcast of Russian TV channels in the country.

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also contacted several cable TV operators as a part of the research for this article. Only Silknet agreed to speak with us in regard to the issue of Russian TV channels. Silknet has been active on the local market since 2010 and started to add Russian TV channels to its network repertoire after the respective permits from the companies were obtained. Most of Silknet’s Russian TV channels were added last year.

In December 2014, a public movement, called Iveria, filed a lawsuit at the Prosecutor’s Office and demanded the banning of Russian TV channels in Georgia. According to the lawsuit, the information war which is waged by the Russian Federation against Georgia is a real war with all of the instruments characteristic of real wars being used therein as well. Moscow vigorously engages every federal TV channel in the information war which means that not only traditional journalism is involved but state organisations, such as those closely linked to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and Russia’s intelligence services, participate alongside. Iveria’s lawsuit further asserts that information spread by Russian media outlets often includes components of disinformation, information aggression, information as a special operation and information blockade, among others.

One of the Iveria movement’s founders, Nika Rurua, in his interview with FactCheck,

clarified that Russian media seeks to cultivate both religious and ethnic hatred and encourages a further aggravation of the situation in the region. Therefore, he believes it appropriate for the Prosecutor’s Office to take an interest in this issue. He added that even though there was no official legislative act to ban Russian TV channels in Georgia after the war with Russia in 2008, the population openly manifested itself in opposition to the propaganda generated and circulated by the Russian media. This attitude was reflected by cable TV operators which decided to stop the broadcast of Russian TV channels. Mr Rurua further commented that a legal act should have been put into place at that time to regulate the issue but, unfortunately, this did not happen. Considering the circumstances of the present day, there is strategic importance to have the broadcast of Russian TV channels on the territory of Georgia terminated for good. He added that the change of power in the country resulted in a change of politics towards Russia. The new government opted for a so-called rapprochement policy and cable TV operators decided to adapt to the new realities with the reintroduction of Russian TV channels to their network repertoire.

Last year, the Parliamentary Minority introduced a bill to the Parliament of Georgia which envisaged the restriction of the broadcast of Russian TV channels on the territory of Georgia. However, the Parliamentary Majority rejected the bill.

Russian TV channels are boycotted in several countries. According to the decision of the Kyiv Administrative Court, Russian TV and radio channels are banned on the territory of Ukraine. The rationale of that decision is that the information spread by Russian media poses a threat to the national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Ukraine imposed additional restriction on Russian films. The restriction concerns those films which were produced after 1 January 2014 and represent the propaganda of the Armed Forces, law-enforcing agencies or some other military or security services of the Russian Federation.

On 9 February 2015, Editor of The Economist, Edward Lucas, blamed Russian journalists for spreading lies and called

for a wide-scaled boycott of the Sputnik and Russia Today TV channels.

On 14 February 2015, The Economist wrote

that Russian media outlets, which are mostly state-controlled, churn out lies and conspiracy theories. According to the author, Russia Today, which is the most popular TV channel abroad, was set up in 2005 to promote a positive view of Russia. The author explains that at the present moment the TV channel broadcasts in English, Arabic and Spanish and is planning German- and French-language channels. Further, it claims to reach 700 million people worldwide.

Conclusion

After the Russia-Georgia war of August 2008, the broadcast of Russian TV channels on the territory of Georgia was indeed terminated. Even though the decision was not enforced by an official legal norm, it was clearly the result of state policy to fight against Russian propaganda. Since November 2012, however, Russian TV channels have become available in Georgia.

FactCheck concludes that Mikheil Saakashvili’s statement: "…Russian TV channels are now allowed to broadcast in Georgia," is TRUE.