Ruling party official says “violence unacceptable” after attack on TV co-founder

Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said violence was “unacceptable” in response to an assault on Misha Mshvildadze, one of the founders of the domestic Formula TV channel, in Tbilisi on Tuesday.

In his comments over the incident, in which the assailant attacked Mshvildadze in an entrance of a shopping mall in the capital city, Kaladze noted different forms violence could take.

Violence - any kind of violence - should be unacceptable to any person. Violence is not only physical, violence is [also] verbal [and made] through televisions, which is sad. Bullying people in the social [media] space, not accepting different opinions, this is certainly very bad, and we all have to fight against it”, he said.

“There are cases when false information is purposely spread against certain persons, and it is very bad no matter who it comes from. Violence is unacceptable. I can give you many facts - the [...] statements made on live air, swearing, insults, even statements by one of the founders of the TV station in relation to the President [Salome Zourabichvili]. It is a double standard”, he alleged.

Levan Ioseliani, the Public Defender of Georgia, condemned the attack against Mshvildadze and called on the Prosecutor's Office to transfer the case from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Special Investigation Service for further investigation, in order to determine whether the incident contained signs of persecution for an opinion.