On 6 May 2015, the JSC Georgia’s Greenhouse Corporation filed a complaint with the Tbilisi City Court against Rustavi 2 TV company and its journalist Eka Kvesitadze. The complainant demanded the publication of information refuting the report harming the reputation of the complainant.

On 21 March 2015, the Ganskhvavebuli Akcentebi program aired on Rustavi 2 reported that within the framework of Produce in Georgia state program, the government of Georgia, by its decree #1477 of 26 August 2014, handed over the state-owned 350,000 square meter non-agricultural land, which was estimated at 2,450,000 GEL by the state, to the JSC Georgia’s Greenhouse Corporation for a symbolic price of 1 GEL. According to the complainant the land was handed over to the JSC Georgia’s Greenhouse Corporation through a direct sale on the condition that it will make 9,800,000 GEL worth investment in it. Consequently, the complainant believes that the Rustavi 2 reported essentially false facts and deliberately released incomplete information.

The complainant claims that the author of the program misled the audience by reporting that the owner of the JSC Georgia’s Greenhouse Corporation is GCF Partners, the management company of the Georgian Co-Investment Fund, which is co-owned by Ucha Mamatsashvili, a cousin of Bidzina Ivanishvili, and Giorgi Bichiashvili, the Chief Executive Officer of the Fund.

On 24 March 2015, the news program of Kurieri on the Rusatvi 2 TV channel reported that the land plot worth 2,500,000 GEL, located in Gardabani, was handed over to a company of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s cousin for 1 GEL. The final shots of the report featured an old, Soviet-era greenhouse which did not belong to the JSC Georgia’s Greenhouse Corporation. According to the complainant, the report created an impression that the Greenhouse Corporation did not make any investment.

The complainant demands that the defendants be ordered to refute the statements harming the complainant’s reputation in a commensurate manner – through the same means and in the same program – Ganskhvavebuli Akcenetbi and Kurieri. In particular, the complainant demands that the defendant make the statements that (1) the information that “the owner of the JSC Georgia’s Greenhouse Corporation is GCF Partners, the management company of the Georgian Co-Investment Fund, which is co-owned by Ucha Mamatsashvili, a cousin of Bidzina Ivanishvili, and Giorgi Bichiashvili, the Chief Executive Officer of the Fund” is incorrect. In reality, the shareholder of the JSC Georgia’s Greenhouse Corporation is Georgian Agro Development LLC; (2) the information that the JSC Georgia’s Greenhouse Corporation purchased the property for 1 GEL alone is wrong and that the property was handed over to the complainant under the investment obligation of 9,800,000 GEL.

The complainant notes that according to Article 13 of the Law of Georgia on Freedom of Speech and Expression, a person shall be imposed civil liability for defamation against a private person if the claimant proves in court that the statement of the respondent contains essentially false facts directly related to the claimant, and this statement caused damage to the latter. The complainant believes that the reports of the defendant do not constitute personal opinions of the journalist about the complainant but the assertion of facts. In the complainant’s view, the failure to double check facts indicate about the deliberate distortion of facts.

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