Georgia

[GE] TV company under criminal investigation

IRIS 2026-6:1/4

Andrei Richter

Comenius University (Bratislava)

On 16 June 2026, the Investigation Department of the Tbilisi Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation under Part 1 of Article 373 of the Criminal Code of Georgia for false reporting. In a public statement on its official Facebook page, the Prosecution Service of Georgia said that the basis for initiating the investigation was a statement by lawyers representing the interests of film director George Khaindrava. It is in relation to information disseminated, in January 2026, by the broadcaster, Formula TV, regarding the possible commission of a crime by him. Citing an anonymous source, the broadcaster alleged that the film director had assisted citizens of India and Pakistan to migrate into Georgia, under the pretext that they were actors selected for the film production in exchange for a certain amount of money, and in agreement with the State Security Service.

This particular provision of Article 373 (“False denunciation”), last amended in 2006, provides that “False denunciation of the commission of a crime shall be punished by a fine or community service from one hundred and eighty to two hundred and forty hours or with corrective labour from one to two years or with imprisonment for up to four years.”

Reportedly, in the ongoing civil defamation case, brought by Khaindrava, Formula TV has refused to disclose the confidential source of information.

These developments come on top of the administrative penalty imposed on the broadcaster by the national media regulator, ComCom, in May 2026. The regulator found that the breaches of the broadcasting law related to obligations of broadcasters, such as due accuracy, fairness and impartiality. The fine of 2 500 Georgian Lari (about Euro 830), imposed on the broadcaster, was the first such penalty issued under the April 2025 amendments to the broadcasting law (IRIS 2025-3:1/7). This measure followed earlier verbal warnings issued to several broadcasters, including Formula TV, over similar alleged breaches and came amid a recent pledge by ComCom to enforce content-regulation laws more proactively (IRIS 2025-9:1/9).


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This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.