Controversy over Imedi TV's fake report took a new twist on Monday evening when a taped phone conversation emerged implicating the television station's top management in deliberately avoiding making a clear notice to viewers that the report on renewed war with Russia was fake.
The phone conversation is purportedly between Giorgi Arveladze, the head of Imedi television stations and his deputy in charge of news and political programming, Eka Tsamalashvili.
Although Arveladze did not deny that it was his voice heard in the tape, he strongly rejected authenticity of the tape by claiming that it was fabricated.
"No such conversation has ever taken place," Arveladze told Rustavi 2 television station via phone. "It seems to be a compilation made from my various separate conversations," he added.
"This is yet another provocation with Russian special services obviously behind it. It was posted on a website with links to Russian special services," he said.
"I can say it with full responsibility that this taped phone conversation is totally fabricated," he added.
It is to be mentioned that the tactics of compilations of telephone conversations with the subsequent use of false records for discrediting purposes has actively been used by the FSB after Putin came to power. It was under his leadership the FSB began to apply these tactics openly and at a large scale using allegedly "intercepted" conversations in news programs of the main Russian TV channels.
Source: Agencies
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