Georgian Dream is preparing to file a third complaint against the BBC, Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili from the ruling party said on April 18. This will mark another stage in the ongoing dispute between the Georgian authorities and the British public broadcaster.
The case concerns an investigative report and documentary published by the BBC on December 1, 2025, which claims that Georgian authorities may have used a World War I–era chemical agent, “kamit,” during the dispersal of pro-European protests in Tbilisi in 2025. The BBC publication described various methods of the unlawful use of force against protesters.
Georgian Dream first filed an official complaint against the BBC on January 14, 2026, accusing the broadcaster of violating a number of standards and demanding the removal of both the article and the documentary, as well as a public apology.
According to Papuashvili, the new complaint is also being considered within the BBC’s internal mechanisms, though this time at a higher level.
In his view, the discussions held so far indicate that the British legal system is “problematic,” since complaints are reviewed within the same organization whose journalistic product is the subject of the dispute.
“It turns out that the British legal system is a nightmare. They reviewed our complaint and said: the journalists who came up with this falsehood examined your case and rejected it,” Papuashvili said.
According to him, the case has already gone through two stages: first, the complaint was reviewed at the level of journalists and the core editorial team, after which it was rejected.
Then the case was considered by the editorial group that had approved and published the material, and in that instance as well, the decision was negative.
Now, as Papuashvili says, the case is moving to a third stage, where it will continue to be discussed within the BBC, but at a higher level.
Papuashvili stated that “the Georgian authorities are ready to use all available legal means and, if necessary, take the dispute to the Strasbourg court.”
