Article published in the 15/03/2010 caucaz.com
By Nicolas LANDRU Tbilisi
Tbilisi, 20h. Many Georgians have been sweating this Saturday, March 13, 2010, if they have not turned their television well in advance. The newspaper's evening television channel Imedi (Hope) has been replaced for ½ hour by fake newspaper announcing a new Russian invasion, the bombing large cities, and finally the assassination of President Mikheil Saakashvili. Appraisal: panic, telephone networks saturated, looting a gas station in Gori's ... domestic and international criticism, and a shock to the political opposition pulled out of hibernation and forced to open sooner than expected its new season Challenges.
The hoax of a pro-government television is a new and strange avatar of the media and political life in this Caucasus country accustomed to twists repeated over two years. Population, still scarred by the war in August 2008, responded to heat. While the authorities have an ambiguous reaction vis-à-vis the case, Western diplomats are blaming the chain, which has apologized hot but firmly reiterated its intention and defended his false log thereafter.
"how events may develop if the company does not consolidate against the plans of Russia
The argument that national cohesion is a central element of the anti-opposition rhetoric developed by the regime since the wave of turmoil party in fall 2007. He allowed Mikheil Saakashvili to end the demonstrations on November 7 by introducing a state of emergency and, on several occasions to embarrass his opponents. The war in August 2008 having realized the danger alleged, had opposition row behind the president during the conflict, then kills himself before giving up his attacks in the spring 2009 season for a heavy challenge. The elections for mayor of Tbilisi to be held in May-June 2010 may well see a new wave of endless events paralyze the streets of Tbilisi. In itself, the false newspaper is a point on the "i" even before the opposition, almost absent during the winter, could not make its comeback.
The spokesman of the government visited the headquarters of Imedi shortly after the publication of fake newspaper to issue a formal critique of this action, predictably unpopular, and several members of the presidential majority have strongly condemned the event. But the personal reaction of President Saakashvili, Sunday, March 14, is more ambiguous. Far from commenting on the shape of the event and after briefly Imedi criticized for not scrolling caption indicating it was a fake, the Georgian president has mainly dwelt on the fact that this scenario was "near to the maximum of reality."
"The enemy of Georgia has begun to show a very bad movie for Georgia in August 2008 but we stopped the film, although we know that the director continues to write the script of the screenplay, which is close what we saw yesterday, "he said when asked about the event. How to support the project even a Log-apocalyptic fiction and prognosis. By going to praise the adequacy of the hoax with reality as regards the opponent Nino Burjanadze, pointing that she went to meet Putin in Moscow and hammering by this act proves that she has "no dignity, "the Georgian president does absolutely not sought to remove the suspicion that the spread of fake newspaper is from above, in the government.
"The situation is too tragic for a hoax"
Giorgi, civil society activist who attended the event and spontaneous nocturnal launched against the television channel, knows the hoax broadcast by Belgian television RTBF 13 December 2006, which heralded the disintegration of the Belgian state. Identical formula, may have even speak of an exact copy: ½ hour of fake newspaper where only finer points of detail can leave understanding the deception (here, a brief mention of dates in June 2010 and the holding of municipal elections); all in the format of a special edition, followed by a discussion. A hot topic and an extreme scenario but are likely the key to a formula in which the viewer uninformed will believe almost certainly. But Giorgi, the similarity ends there. "In Belgium, there was no loss of life. There have been no war a year and a half earlier, and we did not announce to the public it risked the worst horrors. "
panicked reaction of many people across the country indicates a nervousness among the population, there are less than two years, there was a foreign invasion. During the broadcast, the phone network was saturated, people are taking the current program trying to learn. In Tbilisi, a large number of viewers interviewed reported having hot believed in the reality of the newspaper, and informing people who do not watch this channel, which in turn have believed in the space of 20 minutes. In the cities indicated in the fake diary as being subject to imminent bombing Poti and Senaki as in Mingrelia, there were chaotic trailing blanks. In Gori, a city that experienced the most sensitivity near the 2008 war, the population remained on alert all night, a group of men attacked a gas station to get gas and then be able to escape. It is reported that the ambulance calls were unusually high that night, and it has even been documented cases of reservists called to war by their officers who watched Imedi. Although
at 20:30, everyone or almost discovered the truth, the Georgian population had a severe wakeup call. The condemnation of the act by diplomats from Tbilisi, starting with the U.S. Ambassador John Bass who qualifies as "irresponsible" and concerned the reaction of media worldwide, reinforcing the puzzled reception and outraged by the issuance of a visible part of the population Georgia, at least in Tbilisi. As a guide, several groups have formed on Facebook to condemn the show, reaching 5,000 members before the end of this Saturday, March 13.
An early awakening of the opposition
In the aftermath, the political opposition in Georgia, including the leaders mentioned in the fake newspaper, organized a spontaneous demonstration. Alongside civil society organizations and citizens' groups angry anonymous, major figures of the opposition gathered outside the headquarters Imedi to Dighomi. Some of the guests leaving the show were insulted and sprayed, but outside of that and a few chants, the various opposition parties seemed relatively unorganized and did not decide to undertake a more insistent. They nevertheless decided to hold a public meeting for tomorrow, kicking off the first event of the year preceding their agenda and action fixed according to the municipal elections of May-June
After a spring of ongoing protests that paralyzed the capital in 2009 and a blurring of movement at the dawn of summer, the clash of families did not yet transformed into a massive and spontaneous follow-up of the political anger of the opposition. The event that night and the next day did not attract much more than 200 to 300 participants. Despite the shock, and perhaps partly due to an effect of managed fear, fury is far from popular.
The question of why remains open. The spread of the hoax it was also the opposition party to take courses? The stampede was he wanted? For what purpose?
Imedi TV a strange fate
The most down-to-earth remains: why was precisely the Imedi she launched into this adventure and controversial risk the very survival of the media group? A citizens' movement has already announced plans to drag the matter to court. In the fake newspaper, use and falsification of intemperate words of real people and important (Barack Obama, Eric Fournier, the French ambassador, the heads of Baltic states and Poland, to call for all involved save Georgia ) would be sufficient to bring down the group in the trial for defamation.
Now Imedi is headed by a close associate of President Saakashvili, Giorgi Arveladze. But it differs from public channels and those that are clearly and openly as allies of the Rustavi 2. For a time the media's main opposition, the property of sulfur oligarch Badri Patarkatsishvili, pitting personal Saakashvili, television had been closed following the events of November 7, 2007. After the death of Patarkatsishvili astonishing in its presidential campaign in which it participated, the question of its ownership, with the purchase of a major part of shares by a certain Joseph Kay, that the opposition accuses of being a government agent, has been a matter opaque. Anyway, Imedi has since become another voice of power.
rumored that a trial was in prospect, to restore share of Imedi to the legal heir of Patarkatsishvili's widow Inna Goudavadzé. In which case an action would have been suicidal in a way like another to close the television for too long cumbersome. What is certain is Imedi is pro-government, but represents no formal or symbolic voice of power. What has meaning for an outrageous act openly, morally condemnable, but with content could not be more in line with government propaganda.
"He never missed more than that, a fake Russian invasion," quips finally Giorgi. For the population of a country under high international tension over the past two decades, and particularly in recent years, Saturday night was a fake but violent reminder that stability is still a distant dream that looks good in Georgia, even when actually it nothing happens.
Photos: Nicolas Landru
0 comments:
Post a Comment