The Georgian Public Broadcaster’s First Channel responds to the statement made by President Salome Zourabichvili in the European Parliament regarding the public broadcaster.

The President of Georgia stated during her speech:

“Now we are seeing, and you are seeing, all of you, the lies when the official statements are describing the positions of your countries, of some of your countries, during the Council of Foreign Affairs, which you had to rectify with statements. But, good news. I want to let you know that those statements of rectification are not publicized by either the public television or of course, by the governmental televisions. So, the people that are supporting the Georgian Dream and are watching these televisions do not know that their government is lying, and after having lied, is also insulting its partners. So, what is important to finally get to, is that it’s not a question today of politics, or polarization, or of a government that has overextended its authority, not to say authoritarianism. It’s really about this radical choice that was presented during the elections to the voters, and it’s a vote about Georgia and its future. And it must be clear that Georgians will not stop until Georgia gets free and fair elections because that is the only democratic, political way out of this situation.”

Salome Zourabichvili’s statement is disinformation and an attempt to discredit the Public Broadcaster. The GPB First Channel published statements from the foreign ministries of all three countries – Romania, Italy, and Spain on its website, and the news was also covered in the 10:00 Moambe news broadcast on December 18th.

We firmly ask the President of Georgia to stop deliberately attempting to damage the public broadcaster during this tense situation.