The TV company founded by the pro-Russian and homophobic group Alt Info received 1,193,388 GEL as income during 2022 and the first three months of 2023. 99.8% of this amount, or 1,191,260, was donated by one of the broadcaster's owners, Tsiala Morgoshia. The rest of the income, 2128, was made up of advertising income.
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Alt Info LLC (N 405313389) received a TV broadcasting license from the National Communications Commission of Georgia at the end of 2020. Officially, the owner of a 50% share of the TV company is Tsiala Morgoshia, aunt of Konstantine Morgoshia, one of the leaders of the pro-Russian group. The remaining 50% is owned by Aleksandre Kardava, who is also the director of the TV company. Tsiala Morgoshia is a pensioner registered in the city of Senaki. She has been financing the TV company every month since 2022. The largest one-time amount - 187,220 GEL was paid in August last year. In the first quarter of 2023, Tsiala Morgoshia transferred a total of 208,550 GEL to Alt Info.
Konstantine Morgoshia claims that his aunt finances the TV company from her own savings.
“My aunt was active for a very, very long time and had various business activities. These are her saving which she has now invested. She owns quite a large capital and has the means. One million sounds like much but it's 350-400 thousand dollars. It is not such a colossal amount,” said Morgoshia.
Alt Info, which broadcasts throughout the country, is mainly used by members of the violent group to spread pro-Russian, homophobic messages and calls for violence. After the attack on the July 8 Tbilisi Pride festival, a part of the European parliamentarians requested the leaders of the EU institutions to impose sanctions on Alt Info and Morgoshia.
“We strongly demand targeted sanctions against the Alt Info group and the oligarch behind it, Konstantine Morgoshia. Alt-Info is known to spread LGBTQI-phobic hate speech on its media channels and was actively involved in the July 8 attacks on Tbilisi Pride,” the six MEPs said in the letter.
In addition to television, Alt Info is also the founder of the political party Conservative Movement. The violent group registered the party at the end of 2021, and before that, on July 5 of the same year, it organized a rally against the March of Dignity announced by Tbilisi Pride, which turned into large-scale violence against journalists and civil activists. A few months after its foundation, the party was fined 217,482 GEL by the court, due to the concealment of non-monetary donations. During 2022, monetary donations of the Conservative Movement/Alt Info amounted to 577,034 GEL.
Since February 24, 2022, the day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Alt Info TV has been actively trying to spread Russian propaganda, to justify Vladimir Putin's starting of war and his crimes against humanity.
