The Board of Trustees of Georgian Public Broadcaster did not satisfy Zviad Ratiani’s complaint and upheld the decision made by the self-regulating body of the Broadcaster.

The complainant had appealed against the decision of the self-regulatory body of Broadcaster.

The Board of Trustees considered Zviad Ratiani’s complaint in three parts and put them for voting. In particular, whether the accuracy was observed when covering Zviad Ratian’s case, whether it was directed to incite hatred and whether the principle of privacy was breached.

Six members of Board attended the session; Grigol Gogelia, Chairman of the Board and Irakli Papava, a member of the Board did not take part in the discussion.

During the ballot on all three issues the votes of the members were divided. The members of the Board Keti Mskhiladze and Irina Putkaradze considered that the first and second principles were violated in the materials related to Zviad Ratiani. While four members of the Board – Marina Muskhelishvili, Giorgi Kokhreidze, Giorgi Nizharadze and Giorgi Iakobashvili had different positions, according to them no violation of ethics norms were observed.

As for the privacy, Keti Mskhiladze and Irina Putkaradze considered that this principle was breached, Gia Nizharadze abstained and three members – Marina Muskhelishvili, Giga Kokhreidze and Gia Iakobashvili disagreed with the position on ethical norm violation.

The members of Board of Trustees plan to hold a meeting with the management of the Broadcaster and discuss new regulations added to the Code of Conduct for Broadcasters.