Imedi lies about Saakashvili poll

On Monday 4 January 2010 Imedi TV News captioned a report marking the sixth anniversary of Mikheil Saakashvili's election as president of Georgia as saying that 60% of respondents in a poll wanted Saakashvili to serve a third term. The caption was a lie - as the report itself later stated the poll (by the US based NDI) said 60% of respondents wanted Saakashvili to be the candidate of the ruling UNM party - not that 60% wanted him to serve a third term. The lie is maybe part of a softening up exercise ahead of UNM MPs changing the constitution to allow Saakashvili to serve a third term. One independent and the most popular TV station in Georgia Imedi was seized by the government at gunpoint in 2007 and handed over to Saakashvili supporters in 2008. It is now managed by Giorgi Arveladze, Saakashvili's former campaign manager and is notorious for it's pro-government propagandist slant. See more at georgiamediacentre.com

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Mikheil
• Saakashvili
• Imedi
• Georgia
• Tbilisi
• poll
• NDI
• lies
• propaganda
• Greenberg
• Quinlan
• Rosner