JSC Cartu Bank, founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili, honorary chairman of Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party, has filed a lawsuit against TV Pirveli. The bank is seeking the retraction of information it claims is damaging to its business reputation, stating it has been repeatedly subjected to slander and accusations.
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The core of the dispute is a report aired by TV Pirveli on May 1, titled Sanctions Against Cartu - the Heaviest Blow Approaches Ivanishvili.
The bank contends that phrases used in the report, such as "oligarch's bank," were intended to "mislead the public and create a wrong perception of the bank." Cartu Bank argues this portrays it as if it "is the property of Bidzina Ivanishvili," thereby "politicizing the bank," which it deems "damaging for the bank as a commercial organization."
The lawsuit notes that TV Pirveli's report contained "disconnected from reality, distorted, false accusations," which "damages the bank's business reputation."
TV Pirveli's report focused on a resolution adopted by the European People's Party (EPP) on April 30. In the resolution, the EPP urged the European Council to implement necessary measures to disconnect Ivanishvili's Cartu Bank from the SWIFT and Visa/MasterCard networks.
The report also featured a comment from Nato Khaindrava, chairperson of Cartu Bank's supervisory board. In a phone conversation with the journalist, she stated that Bidzina Ivanishvili has not been the bank's founder for a long time.
"The lawsuit is very strange. According to the Georgian law on freedom of speech and expression, only the dissemination of defamatory information constitutes slander. That is, Cartu Bank believes that 'Bidzina Ivanishvili's bank' - these words defame and damage the reputation of Cartu Bank. In itself, of course, it is interesting why a bank might think that their connection with Bidzina Ivanishvili is offensive, damaging to their reputation, and defamatory. This, of course, is absurd on the one hand, but on the other hand,
it is clear that they are trying to use Murusidze's court to try to distance themselves from Ivanishvili, because Ivanishvili's name, with high probability, is already associated with very serious sanctions," lawyer Irakli Abesadze told TV Pirveli in an interview.
In recent years, TV Pirveli has been sued for defamation by several Georgian Dream leaders.
