On January 18th, 2022, Giorgi Kardava, one of the leaders of the Conservative Movement, spoke about the Public Ombudsman and the State Inspector’s Offices in Alt-Info’s program “Alternative Vision”. Kardava noted that these institutions are not subject to state regulation and, hence, represent tools in the hands of external actors, which contradicts the rule of...

On January 12th, the Tbilisi City Court heard the controversial money laundering case against the founders of TBC Bank – Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze. The court found Khazaradze and Japaridze guilty of fraud; however, they were not put to jail since the statute of limitations were passed by the time of the ruling. During...

On December 25th, the Georgian government revealed its plans to abolish the State Inspector’s Office and create two new supplementary agencies. The State Inspector herself responded to the information, noting that she had found out about the “conspiratorially” initiated change regarding the abolition of her service from the media. She further noted that the change cannot be perceived as a reform...

Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has become a target of violent groups this time. The newly-created political party “Conservative Movement,” whose leaders have incited violence against Tbilisi Pride on July 5th, resulting in the injury of 53 journalists, has announced a rally outside the Ombudsman’s office on December 24th. The organizers demand the release of the violent activists...

On November 28th, 2021, the Facebook user Nino Kuntseva-Gabashvili posted a photo of a so-called “Health certificate” [Gesundheitspass] issued in the Third Reich. According to the post description, the document was used in fascist Germany in the 1930s and was required for access to museums, schools, stadiums, restaurants, shops, transport and other public places. The author of...

After the deterioration of the health of the imprisoned third president of Georgia, the Ombudsman and her group of experts assessed the health condition of Saakashvili as critical. They recommended his treatment in the intensive care unit of the multi-unit hospital. The statements voiced by the Ombudsman resulted in the emergence of anti-opposition pages and government trolls,...

On November 27th, the Facebook page “Leader 41” published an edited photo of Mikheil Saakashvili, on which he is wrapped in a white robe. The image is accompanied by a description stating that Saakashvili’s doctor at the Gori Military Hospital, Nino Gogorishvili, said Saakashvili was imitating a courtroom session, calling on the judge to be fair, and...

On November 20th, the Georgian version of the pro-Kremlin “News Front” and the pro-governmental “Spacenews.io” published a Facebook post by the founder of the Caucasus Center for Islamic Studies,Shota Apkhaidze. Apkhaidze claims that the Public Defender and Formula TV received 580,000 EUR from the Armenian organization Patterson Belknap, the French Kagan Foundation and the Russian...

On October 26th, 2021, Irakli Martinenko, the host at “Alt-Info,” said that systematically unacceptable forms of punishment, such as rape and similar methods, were not employed under Joseph Stalin’s rule. Irakli Martinenko: „[In Stalin’s time] there was no such thing as a systematic use of unacceptable forms of punishment. Namely, crimes were not punished by drastic measures such...

On November 2nd, the Facebook page “Miss Décolleté 2018” posted aphoto depicting the fashion line of the creative director of Balenciaga, Demna Gvasalia. Namely, the picture shows a model wearing a T-shirt with the following inscription “მიშა შეიწყალეთ” [Pardon Misha]. The post itself is accompanied by the following comment: “Demna Gvasalia, Autumn-Winter 2021,” creating the impression...

After the return and arrest of Mikheil Saakashvili, several coordinated campaigns were launched on the social network to disseminate disinformation and discredit the third president of Georgia. During October 30-31st, the period of the second round of the 2021 local self-government elections and its aftermath, anumber of fabricated quotes were spread in the name of Mikheil...

Shortly before the October 2nd local elections, Myth Detector identified 13 Facebook accounts with 11 posing as regional media outlets, one – as a page aimed to popularize a specific region and another – operating as a public and cultural page. The pages posing as regional media indicate in their descriptions that they are media...