An investigation has been launched into the receipt of personal data of citizens by a journalist from Imedi TV

The Personal Data Protection Service of Georgia announced on November 28 that it had launched an investigation into “the fact of processing (receiving) the personal data of the addressees of telephone calls” carried out by the journalist of the “Day of Imedi” program of the TV company “Imedi” Marika Bakuradze to citizens because of the comments they wrote on social networks within one of her stories.

The Personal Data Protection Service’s statement follows one of the pieces aired today on the Imedi Day program, which concerned Marika Bakuradze’s telephone conversations with the authors of negative comments on social networks about one of her old stories. The journalist found out the reasons for writing negative comments by citizens.

The plot of the Imedi Day program was criticized by a part of the society from the point of view of ethics. Questions also arose regarding the legality of obtaining personal data of citizens by a journalist. At the same time, it was suggested that “the state media began to publicly blackmail critical citizens on open air”.

Marika Bakuradze responded to the criticism of part of society on Facebook and expressed regret that today’s broadcast of the Day of Imedi program caused “a stir”. She explained that the purpose of the material was to show how hate speech, offensive words, anger and aggression have taken over social space.

Bakuradze also emphasized that in the material she prepared, “the anonymity of the respondents was fully protected.” “The voices of all respondents were changed, with a special effect, to avoid identifying each of them,” she wrote. Regarding the contact details of citizens, the journalist said that “this is part of the journalistic activity. By personal and general acquaintance. “Finding contacts in the Facebook space today, in the 21st century, is not a problem. This is how contact information was found.