Censorship in TV-Companies – Nobody Mentioned that Accident Occurred in the School Territory

Gela Mtivlishvili, Information Center of Kakheti

On March 6, the former building of the school boiler-house collapsed in the yard of the Public School in Ruispiri village in Telavi and killed Badri Kvelaidze, 14, a pupil of the 8th form and badly injured Giorgi Tandilashvili, 15, a pupil of the 10th form. The national TV-Companies “Rustavi 2”, Imedi and Public Broadcasting did not mention at all that the accident occurred in the territory of the public school.

TV-Company “Imedi” released information about the accident in its evening news program “Kronika” at 20:55 with the subtitle “A building ruined in Kakheti”. “An accident in Telavi district. The collapse of the abandoned building in Ruispiri village ended with the death of 14-year-old boy. Another boy of 16 was together with him in the building who was injured by the ruins. The building was amortized,” Irina Khizanishvili, Kronika anchor said.

The author of the TV-Story Sopio Makatsaria said: “The accident in Kakheti finished with casualty today. The abandoned building ruined in Telavi district and killed an adult. The investigation has started on the fact to find out the reason of the collapse… The building was amortized. During the accident the boys were in the building. Although the Emergency Unit was working on the place in special regime, they could not rescue Badri Kvelaidze, 14.”

The Public Broadcasting released information about the accident in its news program “Moambe” at 20:06 pm. The subtitle of the TV-story was “tragic accident.” “Tragedy in Telavi district. Collapse of the amortized building in Ruispiri village resulted into the death of one and injury of one adult. Two boys – Badri Kvelaidze, 8th form, and Giorgi Tandilashvili, 10th form, were caught in the ruins. The rescue team could not save Kvelaidze; his friend has leg broken. The injured boy was taken to Tbilisi Iashvili Children’s Hospital. The state will cover his medical treatment costs. The investigation will find out the reasons of the tragedy,” the anchor of the Moambe said.

The author of the TV-story: “The noise of the collapse was heard at 12:30 pm in Ruispiri village. The abandoned, amortized building pulled down when two adults were in it. Badri Kvelaidze, 8th form and Giorgi Tandilashvili, 10th form, were caught in ruins. The rescue team withdrew the boys from the ruins soon but could not save one of them. Badri Kvelaidze died on the place… The boys attended only two lessons at schools; then they left the school building. The teachers did not know where they had gone. But they heard the noise at the end of the forth lesson. Giorgi Tandilashvili, 14, was initially taken to Telavi hospital and then catastrophe brigade took him to the Tbilisi Iashvili hospital. He has his hip bone broken and spine injured. By the end of that day, the rescue team completely deconstructed the amortized building. The investigation will estimate the reason of the collapse.”

Rustavi 2 released information about the tragedy in the news program “Kurieri” at 21:34 pm. The subtitle of the TV-story was: “Accident in Ruispiri – a child killed in the ruins of the former boiler in Kakheti.” The anchor said: “One adult died as a result of the collapse of the old boiler in Kakheti. The doctors are still examining the health conditions of the second child. The accident occurred in Ruispiri village today. The law enforcement officers have already studied the place. According to the preliminary evaluation, the building was old and it was reason of the tragedy… the rescue teams have already finished their work in the village; they cleaned the area. The old building of village boiler collapsed at about 1:00 pm today.”

In fact, the accident occurred in the territory of the Ruispiri public school but nobody mentioned it. The former building of the school boiler, which is about 40 meters away from the school building, was mentioned as an abandoned building in Ruispiri village or old village boiler.

Tamar Moisiasvhili, expert of education issues: “Conception about safe school should necessarily ensure security of pupils and school personnel. Physical safety of pupils and teachers is very significant and it is related with the architect of the school building, healthy food, equipment and entrance of strangers into the school territory. Unfortunately, I have seen similar buildings in many other school yards like the one in Ruispiri. The so-called boilers were located in the school yards during soviet time. It will be nice if the state timely resolve this problem.

-Ms. Tamar, who do you think is responsible for the tragedy?

-I do not know whether the school administration has permission to independently dismantle those buildings though they are school properties. I think, they do not have similar permission and refrain from destroying them. As far as I know, the newspapers wrote that the director of that particular school had petitioned to the corresponding institutions to allow them to destroy the building. The main point is that, now, this tragedy showed to everybody, entire society, the state, others that physical safety is urgently important and similar buildings must be destroyed. The only correct decision could have been timely deconstruction of amortized buildings in school territories.

-All three national TV-Companies hid that the accident occurred in the school territory. How can you explain it?

-Very often it is ridiculous for me to hear incorrect information on TV when social media is so active nowadays. Spread of incorrect information is completely unacceptable for me. I do not know why they did it. This fact could not have been hidden. The adult died and people are shocked. Similar TV-stories are beyond all logic.”

Ia Antadze, journalist, head of Civic Development Institute: “Although it was an accident, I think the people, who were obliged to take relevant measures to avoid similar accident, must be punished; they should have assumed that a child could enter there.

-None of the national TV-Companies mentioned that the accident occurred in the school territory. How can you explain it?

-It might be a result of poor professionalism. On the other hand, you know the Ministry of Education implements the program about safe school and like glassy police buildings, they are focused on particular safety in school. But, on this background, this accident proved that the school is not safe at all. It is also possible that the released information had political grounds. But, even the TV-Company Maestro, who does not try to protect anybody at all, reported that the building had no connection with the school. Maybe, the TV-Companies did not know that this building belonged to the school. If the building belonged to the school, it farther complicates the situation because officials from higher governmental institutions might be held responsible for the tragedy instead the school director. In any case, it was serious tragedy. When the Safe School Program is so much advertized, this fact proved that the responsible people do not take care to ensure safety of children and resolve all problems that might be dangerous for life.”

Zviad Koridze, journalist, media expert: “When the information is reported about educational institution, the journalist must ask questions to the school director and the latter must clarify why amortized building was located in the territory of school. The Ministry of Education must know conditions of school properties, which of them are amortized and dangerous for pupils. Today, the Ministry believes that school administrations can control movement of every pupil. But it is does not work. Of course a child could easily enter the building which was located in the school territory. He did not leave the school yard. And the tragic accident happened because it was amortized. The building could have collapsed when nobody was inside it, but unfortunately it did not happen and a child died. Of course, the ministry of education must take responsibility for the accident together with other responsible bodies. On the one hand, the director had to warn the ministry about the amortized building and the latter should timely take measures to avoid injury or even death of pupils and teachers. The TV-Companies hid the information in order not to show who is guilty in it. There might not be any other offense but negligence or incorrect management though it ended with tragedy; the boy died. So, I think the national TV-Companies hid the information not to blame the Ministry of Education in this accident.”