Archil Talakvadze: If these mistakes not be corrected, distrust toward Freedom House report will be deepened
Archil Talakvadze: If these mistakes not be corrected, distrust toward Freedom House report will be deepened

The Freedom House report is extremely tendentious and biased, in which the facts and circumstances are distorted, absolutely far from the reality, – said the leader of parliamentary majority Archil Talakvadze.

According to him, Freedom House should exercise more responsibility while making biased assessments on Georgia.

“When it comes to media freedom as if the situation in this direction is worsened, I can say that there is no sense in comparing it with the previous period when the media was completely monopolized. Today, we have number of media outlets, journalists have the opportunity to work freely. Today, criticism toward government is on its high level, which means that the media is free in Georgia. The second problem we have seen in the report is a rough mistake toward the public broadcaster, as if Second Channel of GPB that broadcast parliamentary sessions was closed. This is inaccurate information and after indicating mistake, Freedom House corrected it. The organization should also change all the shortcomings and biased assessments in the report. The assessments about Bidzina Ivanishvili are also unfair. You know that he left the post of prime minister by his own will and returned to the private sector, and in this report we see totally different assessments.

If these mistakes not be corrected, it will only lead to deepening distrust toward the organization’s reports, nihilism, which will ultimately damage the interests of Freedom House in Georgia and the region as well”, – Talakvadze said.

International organization Freedom House has admitted mistake and corrected it, which was made in the 2017 report with regard to the Georgian Public Broadcaster. The report of Freedom House of 2017 said that Second Channel of GPB that broadcast parliamentary sessions was closed.

The organization amended the document on April 13. “An early version of this report incorrectly stated that the second channel of the public broadcaster GPB was closed down. The Channel still operates but its content has been reduced” – the note attached to the report reads.