Fake TV Report of Russian Invasion Sparks Panic in Georgia

INVASION SCARE: Georgian opposition supporters attend a rally in central Tbilisi on March 14. Outraged Georgians on Sunday slammed the local television channel that sparked panic by broadcasting a faked report announcing that Russia had launched an invasion. (Vano Shlamov/AFP/Getty Images)

Hundreds of people rushed into the streets, overloaded cell phone networks and several suffered heart attacks, according to local media, after a private Georgian TV network aired a realistic yet fake report showing Russian tanks invading the country and killing the president.

The pro-government television station Imedi defended their Saturday evening broadcast saying they were simulating what could happen if the president was really killed by opposition forces.

After angry protests in front of the TV headquarters in Tbilisi, George Arveladze, one of the station owners apologized for the distress the broadcast caused.

Surprising to many, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili approved of the phony report.

“It was indeed a very unpleasant program, but the most unpleasant thing is that it is extremely close to what can happen and to what Georgia’s enemy has conceived,” Saakashvili said in a televised statement after the incident.

He stressed that the broadcast was not aimed at hurting the reputation of opposition leader Nino Burjanadze, who heads the Democratic Movement-United Georgia Party. Burjanadze had been cast as one of the traitors in the faked footage.

Nevertheless, President Saakashvili, took the opportunity to condemn her and a former Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli for their recent visit to Moscow to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“Those who are shaking hands with people who have Georgian blood on their hands will never be respected,” Saakashvili said.

Burjanadze reacted furiously, denouncing the broadcast as government-sponsored propaganda.

“This government’s treatment of its own people is outrageous. I am sure that every second of this program was agreed upon with Saakashvili. Many people suffered psychological trauma,” Burjanadze told AFP.

“Every word about me was malicious slander and I will sue both Imedi television and the authorities,” she continued.

The government offices in Tbilisi denied having anything to do with the report and called it “irresponsible.”

Georgian media regulator National Communications Commission declared it would launch an investigation to determine if the Imedi TV had violated the laws of the country and what legal measures should be taken if so.

The program was announced in the beginning as a “simulation,” but that too looked authentic as it showed footage from previous real events.

The footage came back as a nightmare for Georgian people. Eighteen months earlier, Russia had indeed crossed the country’s border in a response to a Georgian military campaign to retake the area of South Ossetia, which is supported by Moscow.