SWITCHING ON their TV sets at 8pm on Saturday, Georgians were greeted with incredible news: Russia had invaded. The pro-government Imedi TV station reported that Russian tanks were once more trundling into Georgia. Not only that, but the country’s pro-western leader, Mikheil Saakashvili, had been murdered, the station said.
For the next half an hour there were scenes of absolute panic as the mobile network collapsed, Georgians spilled on to the streets, and friends and relatives desperately tried to reach each other and seek out information. In fact, they needn’t have bothered.
The report, it turned out, was a hoax. The Kremlin hadn't invaded, and Saakashvili was very much alive. Not since Orson Welles persuaded Americans that the Martians had landed, during his hysteria-sparking War of the Worldsradio broadcast, had a whole nation been so duped.
Yesterday, furious opposition politicians denounced the TV stunt as dangerous and irresponsible. Angry residents in the capital, Tbilisi, gathered outside the offices of Imedi TV, hours after the report flashed around the world. Saakashvili, however, was unapologetic. He declared that the threat of Russian attack remained “very realistic”.
Zaza Gachechiladze, editor-in-chief of the Georgian Messengernewspaper, said: "People were completely shocked. I was driving to my friend's party when I got a phone call telling me to turn on the TV. I rushed upstairs. There was Dmitry Medvedev saying that Russia was intervening in Georgia. I didn't notice this was old footage from August 2008. I immediately started looking for my children."
Gachechiladze said it took him 10 minutes to establish the story was “bullshit”. He added: “It was a very cruel simulation. One lady whose son was in the army had a heart attack and died. Another, pregnant, lady lost her baby. Many children were taken to hospital suffering from stress. It was horrible what happened, actually. It is a criminal act that should be punished.”
In Moscow, Russia’s state news agency, Interfax, flashed news of the apparent invasion and Saakashvili’s demise. British and US correspondents abandoned dinner parties, phoned editors and began hunting for their flak jackets.
It was left to David Cracknell, a seasoned veteran of the Sunday Timesnow working for the Georgian government, to kill the story. He sent journalists a laconic SMS. It read simply: "Not true." But for many Georgians, the threat of a Russian invasion remains hauntingly real, given the five-day conflict of August 2008. Georgian tanks had attempted to retake the rebel province of South Ossetia, prompting a punitive pan-Georgian Russian invasion.
Nearly two years on, Georgia’s unhappy war with its mighty neighbour continues to divide Georgians and polarise society. Saakashvili insists his South Ossetian offensive was a desperate response to a long-planned and already progressing Russian assault. Georgia’s opposition accuses Saakashvili of criminal recklessness.
It is no coincidence that Imedi TV’s hoax came days after Georgia’s opposition leader, Nino Burdzhanadze, held talks in Moscow with Putin, and called for the restoration of ties. Announcing that Russia had bombed Georgian air and seaports, the 30-minute bulletin said Burdzhanadze had taken power. The broadcast appears to be an ill-conceived dig at Georgia’s opposition, ahead of important mayoral elections in Tbilisi in late May.
Georgia’s interior ministry conceded the broadcast had caused “great panic”. However, Georgy Arveladze, head of Georgia Media Production Holding, which owns Imedi, said the aim had been to show the “real threat” of how events might unfold. The station said it had indicated the broadcast was a scenario – but the distinction was apparently lost on most viewers. – (Guardian service)