Where did Imedi TV get the personal data of citizens? Investigation launched

Personal data of Georgian citizens on Imedi

The Georgian Personal Data Protection Service has begun investigating how journalist Marika Bakuradze, a pro-government Imedi TV journalist, got the phone numbers of citizens who wrote negative comments about one of her stories on Facebook.

Bakuradze personally called the authors of the comments on their phones to find out the reason for their reaction, while recording conversations and then airing them on the Imedi Day program. This raised questions from viewers about the ethics of this approach and the legality of a journalist obtaining personal data from citizens.

“Regarding Imedi TV’s actions, the personal data protection service has begun to study the issue of a journalist obtaining citizens’ personal data,” the service said in a statement.

What happened

The host of the Imedi Day program, Marika Bakuradze, called the authors of critical remarks about something she wrote, demanding explanations. She did not specify where she got the numbers, although those she spoke to asked about this, naturally.

According to the journalist, she wanted to “conduct an experiment” to find out why people use these kinds of words and whether they use such language in their everyday speech.

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Bakuradze said that the main theme of her story was hate speech, “a social space torn apart by swearing, anger and aggression.” As Bakuradze explains, this is a kind of virtual world “which, on the one hand, is separated from real life, and on the other hand has firmly entered our existence.

“In regards to ethical standards:

• The anonymity of the respondents was fully protected;
• We didn’t show their comments so they couldn’t be identified in any way;
• Getting personal contacts is part of the job of journalism; finding contacts on Facebook today, in the 21st century, is not a problem;
• The votes of all respondents were changed so that they could not be identified again;
• I talked to everyone in question-and-answer format. It was important for me to listen to their opinion. During the conversation, I openly said that this is the topic of my research,” Bakuradze says.

The former head of the dissolved Service of the State Inspector of Georgia, Londa Toloraya, in response to the story broadcast on Imedi, states that Bakuradze’s stunt violates freedom of speech and the right to privacy.

According to Toloraya, the story raises reasonable suspicions that Bakuradze obtained the numbers from a person or agency which had access to a private database.

Londa Toloraya made the following points:

• The Law of Georgia on the Protection of Personal Data does not apply to journalists. Accordingly, the personal data protection service cannot determine whether this law has been violated by a media representative;
• Notwithstanding that, a journalist is obliged to protect the right guaranteed by Article 15 of the Constitution of Georgia and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (privacy of natural persons); and Principle 10 of the Charter of Journalistic Ethics of Georgia obliges a journalist to respect a person’s private life;
• This act not only violates privacy, but also poses a great threat to freedom of expression and poses risks to the safety of individuals. The journalist needs to be aware of these kinds of risks;
• It is necessary to understand how the supervisory authority for personal data, which provided them, behaved in this situation. There are reasonable suspicions that the phone numbers were provided by a person/agency with access to the official database.

Personal data of Georgian citizens on Imedi