On August 30-31, the pro-government media outlet POSTV published Gela Mtivlishvili’s quotes from the Constitutional Court hearing on the so-called “Foreign Agents” law. Mtivlishvili is the editor of the online media “Mtis Ambebi.” According to POSTV’s social media card, Mtivlishvili allegedly admitted that online media has secret and non-transparent funding. They also published a video collage comparing Mtivlishvili’s speech at the Constitutional Court with a year-old video. In the older video, he claims that there is no transparency issue, while in the recent one, during the Constitutional Court session, he says, “We do not disclose the identity of our donors or the amounts they donate. These individuals donated on the condition that their identities would not be revealed.”
POSTV disseminates Gela Mtivlishvili’s quote in a manipulative manner. The journalist did not claim that online media funding is secret and non-transparent. Additionally, the comparison of the two videos of Mtivlishvili is manipulative. In the older video, he is speaking generally about funding, including foreign grants, while in the Constitutional Court session, he is discussing donations made by Georgian citizens.
On August 29, the Constitutional Court began hearing the case on the so-called “Foreign Agents” law, which lasted for three days. The Court must decide whether to suspend the law before making a final decision. This case was brought by the President, several NGOs and media organizations, opposition MPs, and two journalists (Gela Mtivlishvili and Nino Zuriashvili).
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What did Gela Mtivlishvili say in the Constitutional Court?
At the preliminary session of the Constitutional Court on August 29, Gela Mtivlishvili asked a representative of the Public Registry about the controversial Article 7 of the law, which concerns the provision of personal information. The journalist inquired whether the responsible party could demand a contract with an individual under the law’s monitoring framework. The representative of the Public Registry responded that they indeed have the right to request such documents. Following this, Mtivlishvili stated:
“On our website, which is publicly accessible online, we have outlined and published the procedures for receiving donations. These are donations we receive from Georgian citizens, individuals or legal entities, in small amounts to support our journalistic activities. According to these procedures, we do not disclose the identities of our donors or the amounts they donate publicly, although, of course, these donations are declared to the Revenue Service. This rule applied in 2023 as well, and people donated money to us on the condition that their identities would not be revealed.”
It is important to note that in this case, the journalist is referring to the donations made by Georgian citizens to “Mtis Ambebi” and not to foreign funding, which the “Foreign Agents” law was introduced to control. POSTV manipulates his quote as if the journalist admitted that online media has secret and non-transparent funding.
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What did the journalist say about the transparency of online media funding?
The video shared by the government-aligned media from February 2023 shows Mtivlishvili’s appearance on the TV program “Day’s News” on TV Pirveli. In this episode, he discusses the obligations of media organizations to submit financial declarations even without the “Foreign Agents” law. He lists five mechanisms for controlling media and NGO finances:
- Submission of income and VAT declarations to the Revenue Service;
- Submission of quarterly reports to the National Statistics Office;
- Submission of detailed annual financial reports to Reportal.ge;
- Banks require documents confirming the receipt of international grants under the “Law on Facilitating the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing”;
- Annual reports published on the websites of media and NGOs.
In “Day’s News,” Gela Mtivlishvili spoke generally about monitoring mechanisms for funding, including foreign grants, and did not focus solely on donations made by Georgian citizens, as he did when questioning the Constitutional Court.
“We have had multiple instances where the bank that services us, where we [the organization] are clients, has formally requested the contract confirming the receipt of grant funding from an international organization, and we have provided it. They justified this request with specific provisions of the ‘Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering.’ We have never refused to comply, of course,” he said.
Thus, journalist Gela Mtivlishvili did not state that online media funding in Georgia is secret and non-transparent. POSTV also manipulates the comparison of the two quotes. In one, Mtivlishvili speaks generally about media finances, explaining that control mechanisms already exist, which negates the need for the “Foreign Agents” law. In the video from the Constitutional Court, however, the journalist discusses only donations made by Georgian citizens, whose identities and donation amounts are kept confidential for privacy reasons, although this information is included in the financial declaration submitted to the relevant authority.
Parallel to the discussion of the “Foreign Agents” law in the Constitutional Court, pro-government media POSTV also disseminated another partially false claim, as if the plaintiffs withdrew the lawsuit related to Article 11.
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