Pako Tabatadze May Go to Strasbourg

Since 20-year old Pako Tabatadze was kicked off the reality show “Bari,” he has been busy consulting with lawyers. He is considering legal action against TV station Rustavi 2 because of their violation of his rights. Human rights defenders consider Tabatadze’s expulsion from the show as an issue of direct discrimination.

Pako Tabatadze “had not finished his greeting” when he was expelled from “Bari.” He had come to the show without going through the first round of selection as other must and, according to Tabatadze, he had received a guarantee of inviolability for a month from the leadership of “Bari”. During the live broadcast on October 13th, Pako publicly announced his homosexuality and added that he was not shy of recognizing it. On the contrary, he said he was proud of it.

That same night Bari’s director Giorgi Khaburdzania rebuked Pako. After a period it was found out that Pako would leave the project. Pako recounts the situation:
“At 4 o’clock AM Khaburdzania told me that I had crossed boundaries, that I had overshadowed others and become more popular and that did not suit them. He demanded that I play neutrally and I continued this way. In the morning they got me out and told me that I would leave the project. When I asked the reason they answered that there were the phone calls of dissatisfaction from the Orthodox Patriarchate of Georgia and the population. If I would not leave “Bari” the TV station would have possible problems. After Khaburdzania’s told me to get out I was informed that anchorwoman Nino Khoshtaria would come in and announce the decision in ten minutes. It happened exactly so.”

After that Rustavi 2’s leadership gave a short comment to the media and said that “moral values are higher for them than commercial interests”.
“Geo-Bari’ is a TV show which must show the youths positively. One person’s social problem must not be higher and must not attract more attention of society,” said Koba Davarashvili, the manager of TV Company “Rustavi 2,” in his own TV broadcast.

It’s possible that the leadership of Rustavi 2 did not expect Pako Tabatadze to demand compensation for moral damage in court or talk about other concealed details openly. Tabatadze first offered Naniko Khazaradze’s show the option of talking about people with different sexual orientations. Rustavi 2 was interested with this idea immediately, but it was decided that Pako should first participate in “Bari” and would then appear on Khazaradze’s show.

“I was told that I would recognize during the broadcast that I am a gay, but I would say it two weeks after beginning of ‘Bari’. The recognition is not a problem for me, it’s obvious. I went to the casting where I was formally chosen. It was also decided that in spite of the messages sent by people I would stay on the project for a month and that I would not be sat on the chair. They made this image for me themselves. They took me on a rollercoaster. Then Saturday came. They took me aside three times and asked me whether I was ready. It seemed that when Khoshtaria would ask me to characterize myself, I would state openly my different sexual orientation, and I did,” says Tabatadze.

The group “Inclusive” and its president Paata Sabelashvili are helping Tabatadze, who argues that other reasons for his dismissal from the show, outside of his sexual orientation do not exist. He also argues that according to the second article of a new labor codex, his dismissal is a direct act of discrimination.

“It appears from the comments made by Rustavi 2’s leadership that, for them, appropriate behavior seems to not be a possibility. It may be that at first they did not think they were making comments that might harm their image. Only later did they begin to clean their texts and the comments on their website. I don’t doubt that for the first days of the show it’s possible that they did not want to let Pako go, but the unexpected phone calls (according to verified information, these kinds of phone calls were also made from the government) forced them to make this decision. They obviously needed Pako on the show”.

Paata Sabelasvhili also argues that Pako did not violate the conditions of his contract, which outlines that he should not insult anyone and “should not willfully manipulate the sexual or religious orientation as could harm the other players, society or the TV station’s interests.” Nothing is written in the contract limiting a player from talking about himself.

“It’s obvious that a person was let out of this show because they [the station] paid attention to the reaction of society, because of his sexual orientation. The contract was abolished unlawfully,” says Sabelashvili. “No one thought that Pako showed himself excessively. The actions of ‘Rustavi 2’ seem to be more terrible. Why he was let into the project? Is it possible that he was let in specifically to increase their ratings? Or may be he was let out because society considers the other players’ actions less irritating.”

Sopho Japharidze, a lawyer with the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, talks about the article of Pako’s contract which cunningly says that the TV station can consider a player’s actions unworthy and impose a fine of 5000 lari.

“It comes out that any action that the TV station’s separate leaders do not like can become the basis for such a decision. It must be proved, however, why the show’s dignity was demeaned,” continues Japharidze. “It’s interesting that the ‘project philosophy’ was added to the contract. It was written that the players should be frank as much as possible and should not be shy with expressing their thoughts and feelings openly. It’s obvious that these components are exclude each other.”

“If Rustavi 2 kicked a player out solely because of his sexual orientation it is an obvious case of discrimination. It now depends on whether Rustavi 2 can prove that the player was manipulating the situation in an unworthy fashion. Many things depend on the judge”, says Japharidze.

Nino Andriashvili, the lawyer with the Human Rights Center(HRIDC), also considers the situation as a rude violation of human rights: “I think that actions carried out by Rustavi 2 towards Pako Tabatadze are unlawful. By expelling him Rustavi 2 violated our Constitution and also the principles and standards recognized by international law. According to our Constitution, ‘Every person is born free and equal before the law in spite of their race, color of the skin, language, gender, religion, political and other opinion, national, ethnical and social belonging, origin, property and class condition, living place.’ The prohibition of discrimination is also strengthened in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. It’s a pity that a TV station like Rustavi 2 is violating these rights. I’m sure that Rustavi 2 has a lawyer and I think that the leadership of this TV station should not make these decisions without consulting with a lawyer.”

If the Georgian court does not rule in Tabatadze’s favor, the complaint will go to Strasbourg. Paata Sabelashvili says that amongst the world media headlines discrimination of this nature is one of the leading themes.
This fact had different responses on Tbilisi’s forums. Some are excerpted below: (the original style is kept):

“Pako can complain to the court against the TV Company Rustavi 2 and the organizers of the show to demand the moral damage and discrimination. He can take away ten-times more money then he could win there and they will deserve it!”

“In my opinion Rustavi 2 is in foolish condition. The society does not get (“eat”) such lies. They choose a person with different sexual orientation especially in order to have more audience. At the same time the idle people would engage with rapids. But as it seems someone got very irritated by Pako’s statement and violated his rights and not only rights. He was excluded from the project like they did not know who the abovementioned homosexual was in fact.”
Do you consider this kind of action just?

“I could not bear Pako with his unserious actions, it made me upset, but that is my business whether I like him or not, but his exclusion is obviously inconsistent and discriminative action of Rustavi 2. Pako can protect his rights and complain to the court against “Bari” for the discrimination, of course if we don’t live in Iran. Any European embassy will advise Pako and tell him that there is discrimination of gays in Georgia. Then you can explain to the foreigners that Pako was a gay and not a monkey, will they believe you?”

It would be interesting to see how Giorgi Khaburdzania answers these questions himself. Unfortunately, it is difficult to contact him as it is with Georgian officials. He did not answer calls.

Today it was made public that the head manager of Rustavi 2, Koba Davarashvili, will leave his post and “return to business.”

Eka Qevanishvili, Tbilisi