Georgia Dream ruling party has announced plans to file a complaint with BBC’s regulatory body over police crackdown on 2024 anti-government protests.
Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said on Thursday that the government will file complaint in the coming days. “We hope that at this level, the BBC will acknowledge that the report was fabricated and manipulative; if not, then [we will turn to] other authorities as well’, Papuashvili said, as quoted by local media.
Georgia has repeatedly accused BBC of spreading fake news about the ruling party. In particular, the government has condemned BBC’s documentary that suggested Georgian police used WWI-era chemical camite against anti-government protesters in 2024 in the aftermath of local elections that saw the ruling party gain victory. The BBC documentary has generated a diplomatic crisis between Georgia and the UK, Last month, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze urged the UK to apologise for the material, as the BBC is a public broadcaster ‘directly funded by public channels’. Responding to Kobakhidze, the British Embassy told RFE/RL’s Georgian service that the channel is independent from the UK government in terms of both operations and editorial policy. BBC had denied accusations of bias, saying the documentary was based on evidence from reliable sources.
Previously, the ruling Georgia Dream party said it intended to file a complaint with the UK’s Office of Communications, known as OFCOM and, “if necessary,” take the matter to court. Papuashvili, however, pointed out that under established procedure, the initial step is to raise the issue with the broadcaster’s internal regulatory body.
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