Georgia: Simulating War Or Provoking It?

On the evening of March 13 Georgia’s Imedi television channel ran a 30-minute prime time “simulated” newscast about a Russian invasion of the South Caucasus nation complete with a report that the country’s mercurial (if not megalomaniacal) president – Mikheil Saakashvili – had been assassinated.

The show was aired “by the Imedi TV’s weekly program Special Report, which started just a couple of minutes before 8pm – the time when Imedi TV runs its usual news bulletin Kronika.” (Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes are from Civil Georgia reports of March 14, 2010.)

The Special Report’s regular news anchor, Natia Koberidze, opened the program with the words: “Have you ever thought about the end of Georgian statehood? Probably yes, because we have already seen this threat in the summer of 2008".'

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