TBC Bank Conference: Rights & Business Reputation - Legal Aspects & Problems

TBC Bank, alongside the Georgian Legal Firms Association, organized a conference on ‘Violating rights of honor, dignity and business reputation - Legal aspects and problems.’

The event was led by Zviad Kordzadze, Chairman of the Georgian Legal Firms Association, Ketevan Kvartskhava, Deputy Chairman of the Georgian Legal Firms Association, and Head of the TBC Bank Legal Department, Ekaterine Egutia. The event was held in discussion mode and was attended by legal companies and media representatives.

At the conference, the participants discussed issues related to the inviolability of honor and dignity, freedom of speech, and violation of reputation rights of a company. Freedom of speech according to US legislation, and the scope of freedom of speech in journalistic ethics, were also touched upon.

The recent judicial practice of violating honor, dignity and business reputation was reviewed, with Executive Director of the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, Nata Dzvelishvili, and Judge Ketevan Meskhishvili of the Tbilisi Court of Appeals, presenting a report.

“This conference covered numerous vital issues important for the future in this field,” Meskhishvili said. “In Georgia, we have acceded to judicial decisions in the field of regulation subject to this issue. Lawyers discussed these decisions at the conference. I’m glad that the courts are actively using the decisions of European judges in this direction: on the one side protected by human dignity and on the other having no limitation within freedom of speech.”

"Today's meeting provided an analysis of the legal situation in Georgia, two serious issues such as freedom of speech, on the one hand a constitutional right and on the other hand a violation of a person's honor, dignity and business reputation,” Kordzadze noted. “We tried to intertwine these rights and their interaction. Freedom of speech is at a very high level in the Constitution and is protected by law. But when such good things are distorted by violation of one’s honor, dignity and business reputation, it can be named as restriction of freedom of speech. This makes slander, insult and humiliation, strictly unacceptable.”

The conference also aimed to raise awareness, hence the participation of media representatives and attorneys.

“We talked about precedents in Georgia and referred to those in the US. The difference can be seen in the damage costs which, in this country, are minimal,” TBC’s Egutia noted. “TBC Bank had a four-year dispute with Asaval Dasavali and the court ordered the newspaper to withdraw the slander publicly and also demanded financial compensation. This was not a deterrent, but it is still a good precedent when the court finds that the spread of lies is not an act of acceptance in the context of freedom of speech.”

"Where the flow of information in the country is increasing, misinformation is obviously a significant problem,” said Dzvelishvili. “However, we are looking into finding a solution. This conference came about exactly because lawyers have different opinions from media outlets. We believe that the main thing we should support is the development of ethical journalism, because high-end media can reduce publications that are directed towards the dissemination of incorrect information. The principle of hate speech and their ethical principles is unacceptable," she concluded.

By Nia Pataraia