Georgian Parliament official says Trump’s lawsuit exposes BBC’s credibility crisis

Levan Makhashvili, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s Committee on European Integration, on Tuesday said the United States President Donald Trump’s assessment of BBC as “the formerly respected and now disgraced” was completely fair.

Makhashvili’s remarks followed Trump’s recent statement that he was filing a $10 billion suit against the BBC.

In his interview with Imedi TV, Makhashvili noted that Trump’s suit against the BBC was also good for the Georgian public to see the “true colours” of the BBC.

“The formerly respected and now disgraced” - these are the very words with which Trump completely rightly described [the BBC]. [The BBC] distorted Trump’s word so blatantly and so cynically that it was simply impossible to escape responsibility, which at other times might have been done covertly, it was difficult to prove it but this time it was so open and blatant that the BBC can no longer escape this responsibility”, Makhashvili said.

“On the one hand, Trump’s complaint helps Georgian society clearly see the BBC’s true nature. On the other hand, it will also be useful for all those who believe they are victims of fake information spread by the BBC, as it may strengthen future legal disputes”, he concluded.

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday announced that Georgia was preparing a lawsuit against the BBC, saying “we will use all legal mechanisms to expose the BBC’s falsifications”.

The lawyers are working on the lawsuit against the BBC after the British broadcaster published an investigative article claiming that the Georgian authorities deployed a chemical substance dating back to World War I during protests in 2024.