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Bogus TV report causes panic in Georgia

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Panic was sparked in Georgia after a TV station broadcast news that Russian tanks had invaded the capital and the country’s president was dead. The Imedi network report, which brought back memories of the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, was false. But mobile phone networks were overwhelmed with calls and many people rushed onto the streets.
Imedi said the aim had been to show how events might unfold if the president were killed. It later apologized. Marco Werman talks with Zaza Gachechiladze, editor-in-chief of ‘The Messenger’ newspaper in Tbilisi, Georgia.

• BBC coverage
• Coverage of ‘The Messenger’
• On The World: Georgia crisis (2008)

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MARCO WERMAN:  I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.  TV viewers in Georgia got a jolt over the weekend.  Imedi TV reported that Russia had invaded the former Soviet Republic.  The broadcast seemed credible.  For one thing, it was presented as news.  For another, it’s happened before.  Russian troops advanced deep into Georgia in August 2008.  But this program was a hoax.  It was meant to be a warning to Georgians of what could happen.  But many Georgians thought it was for real.  They included the Editor-in-Chief of the Messenger Newspaper in Tbilisi, Zaza Gachechiladze.

ZAZA GACHECHILADZE:  I turned on the TV station on Imedi TV exactly at the moment when Russian President Medvedev was declaring a war against Georgia.  This was episode from 2008 August event.  You don’t realize immediately whether this was an old footage or it was just live, so you just believe what you see on the TV.

WERMAN: And when did you realize that it was old footage from the previous episode between Russia and Georgia.

GACHECHILADZE:  I ran home immediately and telephoned my children and warned them to be ready so that I will come and rescue them and then we will go together buying products and water and all those things, but in five, ten minutes I made some extra telephone calls to some competent people and realized that it was a fake simulation.  Like this was not available for most of the population who were shocked and who realized that it was simulation only some hours later.

WERMAN: Now was this TV channel Imedi that perpetrated this hoax.  Was there any other channel in Georgia that was broadcasting the same news?

GACHECHILADZE:  No, no this was the first idea that why aren’t other channels broadcasting the news?   But I thought that maybe these channels were already taken over by Russian invaders and then they just managed to stop them transmitting the news.

WERMAN: Why would Imedi, this channel, do this?  It’s just highly unprofessional journalistically speaking.

GACHECHILADZE:  I don’t know.  I’m suspicious that they wanted to carry out the state order to show the people the possible developments in case of Russian repeated invasion.  To kind of threaten the population or warn the population.  I don’t know the exact details which I guess will be revealed in a couple of days.

WERMAN: Apparently Imedi did precede this hoax with a statement that this was just a test.  I guess apparently a lot of people didn’t hear that.  But you said they followed an order.  What is your proof that there was any order given by the government to Imedi to tell this fake news?

GACHECHILADZE:  Because this channel is controlled by the government although the government denies it and says that it is an independent.  This is not like that, unfortunately.  This TV station was in a very controversial manner appropriated by the government and it’s owned by somebody now who we don’t know yet who is the owner.  We don’t know yet who is the owner.  We don’t know where is it registered and the manner it transmits and makes the shows.  – - really is controlled by the government.

WERMAN: Now this scenario obviously was not so far fetched.  To wit, the old footage from the real Russian invasion in 2008 of Georgia that accompanied the fake coverage of this fake invasion.  There are still Russian troops in Georgia.  How seriously are Georgians taking this?  Were they laughing about it Sunday morning, or were they saying this is no laughing matter?

GACHECHILADZE:  Well the population of Georgia is pretty upset and concerned that Russian troops are here.  They are about 30 miles away from the capital of Georgia at Tbilisi and technically they can take Tbilisi in two hours if they want to.  So people are concerned and upset about this.  The – - under which we live and exist and was not before the last year and a half.

WERMAN: It is not laughable, but this episode does remind me of the famous War of the Worlds hoax here in the U.S. in 1938 when people heard a radio broadcast and were convinced that Martians had invaded the earth.

GACHECHILADZE:  That is why people were so much shocked and it was so realistically done.

WERMAN: Did anybody make the comparison to the War of the Worlds broadcast?

GACHECHILADZE:  Yes, several times different commentators made the resemblance.

WERMAN: Zaza Gachechiladze, Editor-in-Chief of the Messenger Newspaper in Tbilisi, Georgia.  We’ll let you get back to the task of covering real news.  Thanks very much for your time.

GACHECHILADZE:  Welcome.

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