Fake News: Mikheil Saakashvili Offers Prime Minister’s Position to Giorgi Gakharia in the Case of Victory
Verdict: FAKE NEWS
Some information was disseminated through social networks that Mikheil Saakashvili is offering Giorgi Gakharia the position of Prime Minister in the case of his victory provided that Mr Gakharia brings the former Prime Minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, to justice within his capacity as the new Prime Minister.
The picture of the Facebook publication shows that this information was published on pia.ge at 13:22 PM on 28 September 2021. In fact, this information has never been published by the pia.ge news agency. Currently, there is not a single news item on the pia.ge website that was posted at 13:22 PM on 28 September 2021. The list of the ‘all news’ category on pia.ge shows that the next article which follows the article published at 13:14 PM was posted at 13:33 PM.
The photograph shows that the information was published in the ‘politics’ category of pia.ge. However, this news item cannot be found in the ‘politics’ section. The list of articles in the ‘politics’ section shows that the next article which follows the one published at 13:14 was posted at 14:17 PM.
Supposedly, the photograph is the result of a manipulation of a screenshot of another news item published by pia.ge.
Mikheil Saakashvili’s offer to appoint Giorgi Gakharia as Prime Minister in the case of his victory is not proven by any media outlet and it was not reported by any news agencies. There is no such statement on Mikheil Saakashvili’s personal Facebook page as well.
Therefore, the information promoted by the doctored photograph with the background image of pia.ge indicating that Mikheil Saakashvili is offering Giorgi Gakharia the position of Prime Minister is not true and promoting this disinformation in the pre-election period may mislead the voters.
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