The Communications Commission has declined to uphold Eduard Marikashvili’s complaint against Alt-Info, as according to the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting, only the self-regulatory body of the broadcaster can respond to cases of war propaganda. The Commission studied the case and found that the arguments presented in the complaint go beyond justifying a particular crime, and that there was evidence of war propaganda on the show. 

According the legislation of Georgia, dissemination of war propaganda is prohibited at all times.  It can therefore not be presented as something that is merely harmful to minors. Information containing elements of war propaganda violates the principles of the Law on Broadcasting regardless of when it is aired. 

Article 56.1 of the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting prohibits “any type of war propaganda.” Furthermore, according to Article 14 of the same law, “a broadcaster must, on the basis of the code of conduct, establish an effective mechanism for self-regulation that will make it possible to review and provide timely and justified responses to complaints.” Finally, according to Article 59¹ of the Law on Broadcasting, “response measures for the violation of the norms under Article 56 (except in relation to the Decision N 1/3/421 of the Constitutional Court of Georgia of 10.10.2009) may be carried out only within the self-regulation mechanism defined by Article 14.1 of this Law,” while “decisions made within the self-regulation mechanism may not be appealed to a court, the Commission or to any other administrative authority.” 

Eduard Marikashvili contended that Alt-Info violated the law by disseminating information that had harmful influence on minors. According to the complaint, the broadcaster attempted to normalise the effects of Russian military aggression, present moral grounds for human rights abuses and justify them. Thus, the complainant contended that there was an attempt to justify and glorify criminal activities. The Commission ruled that reducing war propaganda to the status of a programme that has harmful influence on minors would contradict the essence and principles of Article 56 of the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting.