17:00, 27 March 2010

Board of Journalistic Ethical Charter: "Imedi" hostess broke the Charter

On March 25, Tbilisi hosted a sitting of the Board of the Charter of Journalistic Ethics of Georgia. In the opinion of the experts, the hostess of the "Imedi" TV Channel Natiya Koberidze had broken the journalistic ethics.

Ms Koberidze ran the scandalous simulated information programme "Chronicle" on March 13, where without imposition of captions or warnings that it was just a hoax, invasion of Russian troops into the territory of Georgia was announced, and video of bombardments was shown. Only after the end of the report, it was announced that it was a simulation. The programme lasted for about 25 minutes. Many people in Georgia took it at its face value and plunged into panic. Two persons later died.

Eteri Turadze, Chairperson of the Board of the Charter of Journalistic Ethics and editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Batumelebi", said that the Board had concluded: Natiya Koberidze broke the Code of the Charter running: the journalist should give truthful information to the society and not confuse people.

Ms Koberidze refuses to talk to media people on the issue.

Author: Tamaz Imnaishvili

Source: CK correspondent