Georgian Parliament official: BBC ignored every response from Georgian side, journalist’s approach biased

Nikoloz Samkharadze, the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Georgian Parliament, on Tuesday criticised the BBC investigation that accused the Georgian Government of using a World War I-era chemical agent during the recent protests, calling the report biased and defamatory.

In his remarks, Samkharadze claimed that the reporting showed clear signs of bias from the moment of publication.

“It was clear from the moment the article was published that the BBC - and specifically this journalist - had a biased approach”, he said.

The official stressed that BBC journalists did not take into consideration any of the answers supplied by the Georgian Government when preparing the article.

“He [BBC journalist] is clearly presented as a party in the issue. Therefore, by no criteria or standards can this be called an objective, even journalistic investigation. They did not take into account a single answer to the questions they received from our side. Consequently, they will have to answer for this disinformation and defamation in court”, Samkharadze concluded.

The BBC published an investigative article claiming that the Georgian authorities deployed a chemical substance dating back to World War I during protests in 2024.

The Georgian Government rejected the allegations and announced legal proceedings against the BBC in international courts.

Additionally, the Georgian State Security Service launched an investigation into information disseminated in the public sphere regarding an alleged crime connected to the claim.