PM to TV Channels: ‘Stop Replicating UNM Propaganda’
PM Irakli Garibashvili said that television stations “should not be parroting views” of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party.
Asked during an interview with Maestro TV on February 5 about criticism of his address at the Munich Security Conference, voiced by some commentators, as well as UNM, Garibashvili responded: “If you speak about National Movement’s satellite organizations and their experts – that’s not interesting for me.”
“I said previously and I want to repeat it that I don’t regard the National Movement as our opponent, they have no moral right to ask questions to us. I will listen to criticism voiced by citizens,” he said.
He dismissed criticism of failing to use appropriately his address at the Munich conference to articulate Georgia’s vision as “utterly absurd and unacceptable.”
“I voiced all the key messages that should have been voiced by the Georgian authorities,” Garibashvili said.
When asked that he did not stressed on possible threat from Russia in his address, Garibashvili told the journalist interviewing him: “Do not repeat criticism [voiced] by the National Movement… You should not be parroting views and remarks of the National Movement.”
“I am not going to respond to criticism voiced by the National Movement; if you invited me to respond it, then it’s a wrong choice,” the PM said.
“I want to make it clear – I have said it previously and I want to repeat it, that I do not want to respond to incomprehensible and absurd allegations of the National Movement and in general I call on you, TV channels, to stop replicating UNM’s propaganda – it harms you first of all, you will simply lose audience.”
“The society needs the truth and if you are disposed to deliver truth to your audience, you should not be parroting round-the-clock criticism voiced by the National Movement; that’s my friendly advice,” PM Garibashvili said.
Commenting on his address at the Munich conference, he said that it was “balanced”.
“There is no need of stirring noise all the time like it was done by the National Movement party and its current chairman Mikheil Saakashvili; the world is tired of radical politics; there is no place for radicalism in modern world,” PM Garibashvili said.
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