Discreditation Campaign Against Salome Zourabichvili

The critical speech delivered by the President of Georgia at the ceremony dedicated to Georgia’s Independence Day on May 26, 2023, was followed by a discreditation campaign pursued by anonymous Facebook pages linked to the incumbent “Georgian Dream” party. However, the degree of the content used for the campaign on the same pages slowed down after the President delivered a speech in the European Parliament on May 31, where her rhetoric towards the Georgian government was less critical.

In her speech on May 26, Salome Zourabichvili stated that it is incomprehensible and insulting to people when the government does not think about the respect and dignity of citizens. Zourabichvili noted that the government should better control both people entering Georgia from Russia and the rhetoric it uses in relation to international partners and Ukraine.

The President’s speech was met with dissatisfaction and criticism from the members of the ruling party. Two days before her speech in the European Parliament, on May 29, the political council of “Georgian Dream” issued a statement accusing the president of bias towards “radical opposition forces”. According to the statement of the ruling party, their position is to refrain from criticizing Salome Zurabishvili as a matter of principle and to protect the institution of the president even “when the prestige of this institution is being endangered by the incumbent president.” The statement expressed hope that the president would not deepen the confrontation with the majority of the Georgian society.

The campaign against Salome Zourabichvili was also related to the possible pardon of Nika Gvaramia, the director of the opposition “Mtavari Channel,” which was expected in connection with the Independence Day of Georgia.

“Myth Detector” has collected the social media posts that were published against Salome Zurabishvili from May 26 to May 31, i.e. before her speech in the European Parliament, together with the criticism by “Georgian Dream.”

Visual Manipulation against Salome Zourabichvili 

On May 26, 2023, anonymous accounts linked to the government (Terenti Gldaneli, Political Satire, Journalists’ Pearls) published an identical card with a photo of Salome Zourabichvili, with a 1-minute time difference, where instead of army shoulder straps, she has sausages on her shoulders. The caption – “Sausage-in-Chief” [Play on words in Georgian] is attached to the photo manipulation. In the description of the post, she is referred to as the shame of the country, claiming that this “is a more suitable title for her” (Political Satire) and that she is  “everything but the president.” (Journalists’ Pearls).

On the same day, the Facebook pages Terenti Gldaneli (12:13), Journalists’ Pearls (12:17) and Corridor of Shame (12:19) published the same unedited photo of the president with a short interval of time. The posts of Terenti Gldaneli and Journalists’ Pearls had the same description (“The shame of our country, this woman should not be called the commander-in-chief”), and the post by Corridor of Shame had the following description: “Whic button did we press, that gave the floor to her”.

On May 26, in order to discredit the President, “Ar Agarevinebt” – the Facebook page of the campaign initiated by Gia Gachechiladze, a  pro-government singer, published a sarcastic post. Zurabishili’s photo was accompanied by the question of who wrote the president’s speech, and the list of potential answers included Ukrainian Rada MP Oleksiy Goncharenko, activist Giga Makarashvili, Droa party leader Elene Khoshtaria, and US Ambassador to Georgia, Kelly Degnan. The purpose of the post was to show that the text of Salome Zurabishvili’s address was influenced by others.

The Facebook profile of Tatia Nadiradze, who is one of the admins of the group “Movdivar,” shared the posts to the following groups: Friends of Bidzina Ivanishvili on “Facebook”, Kakha Kaladze, Mayor of Tbilisi, and Movdivar [I’m coming!].

The Facebook page “Ar Agarevinebt” tried to link Salome Zourabichvili with the “United National Movement (UNM)” with a post publisahed on May 30, featuring a morphed imaged of Salome Zurabishvili and UNM leader Levan Khabeishvili, with the caption “How Madam Saliome resembles Khabe.”

On May 29, the Facebook page “Terenti Gldaneli” published a photo manipulation with sexist content on which Salome Zurabishvili’s face is attached to someone else’s body. In the description, Zourabichvili is compared to Roena, a person convicted of promoting prostitution (“Salome (Roena) Zurabishvili”). This post is a manifestation of slut-shaming.

Another post, in which Nika Gvaramia, the general director of the “Mtavari Channel” who is now in Jail, swears at President Zourabichvili in an archival video, was published by anonymous pro-government pages such as “Archive“, Political Satire, Political Graveyard N5, as well as online pro-government outlet For.ge. It should be noted that Nika Gvaramia’s words towards Zourabichvili are displayed in the description of the “Archive’s” video and in the title of For.ge’s article. The post of Political Graveyard N5 shares the Tik Tok video of “Archive” and asks Salome Zurabishvili if she pardons the person who cursed her in the past.

Notably, in connection with Independence Day on May 26, there was an expectation that the President would pardon Nika Gvaramia since international human rights organizations have been calling on Zourabichvili to do so. Following the spread of this archival video depicting swearing, the chairman of the ruling “Georgian Dream” party, Irakli Kobakhidze, said that if President Salome Zourabichvili pardoned the director of “Mtavari Channel”, Nika Gvaramia, it meant that “what Nika Gvaramia called Salome Zurabishvili was right.”

Sponsored Posts

It should be noted that three of the published posts are sponsored: among them is the post published by the page “Archive“, where Nika Gvaramia uses insulting words towards Zurabishvili; Two posts of Political Satire (1, 2) and one from the page “Ar Agarevinebt.”