By EUvsDisinfo
One of the most-watched television channels in Georgia, Imedi TV has become the ruling party’s most powerful propaganda machine, relentlessly pushing anti-western rhetoric and echoing Kremlin-style disinformation. Over the past decade, the TV channel established itself as the mouthpiece, serving as a loyal arm of the Georgian Dream party and its increasingly authoritarian agenda.
This article examines how Imedi TV functions as a propaganda outlet, distorting public perceptions of the EU, vilifying its representatives, and delegitimising democratic institutions in Georgia.
Imedi TV’s millionaire owner
Currently owned by businessman Irakli Rukhadze, a Georgian-American citizen with ties to major domestic industries and controversial offshore networks, the channel has grown into a central player in a state-controlled information ecosystem. Rukhadze, through the firm Hunnewell Partners, holds significant stakes in Georgia’s financial and industrial sectors, including companies such as Magticom, Rustavi Metallurgical Plant, Liberty Bank, Hunnewell Cement, and TV Imedi itself. Investigations have linked Hunnewell to Russian business elites, including associates of Vladimir Putin, raising red flags about the potential foreign influence behind Georgia’s dominant media force.
Since Georgian Dream took power in 2012, Imedi has mirrored the party’s political line with precision – demonising the opposition, undermining civil society, and advancing an openly anti-Western narrative. In 2024, Rukhadze openly admitted that Imedi’s mission was to prevent the United National Movement (UNM) from returning to power, effectively declaring the outlet’s partisan allegiance.
Manufacturing anti-EU sentiment
Central to Imedi’s editorial strategy is its effort to amplify the ruling party’s anti-Western narrative and discredit the European Union, and its representatives.
Among Imedi TV’s most insidious narratives is the claim that the West, including the EU, is conspiring to overthrow the Georgian Dream government by financing NGOs and independent media outlets. According to this narrative, Western governments are seeking to install its ‘agents’ and proxy leaders in Tbilisi who allegedly aim to open a second front against Russia, sacrificing Georgia to advance the interests of the alleged ‘Deep State’ and ‘Global War Party’. To push this agenda, Imedi TV frequently spreads false or manipulative content and extensively amplifies anti-EU and anti-Western statements by Georgian authorities.
Smear campaigns against EU diplomats
A key target of this campaign has been the EU Ambassador to Georgia, Paweł Herczyński, who has faced repeated attacks and smear campaigns from Imedi TV, directly echoing rhetoric from the Georgian Dream leadership. The channel routinely broadcasts false and defamatory content accusing him of political interference, employing double standards, violating diplomatic norms, aligning himself with the opposition, and undermining Georgia’s sovereignty.
Examples of particularly inflammatory pieces article that describes Herczyński not as a representative of the European Union, but as ‘a loyal servant of the corrupt European bureaucracy, taking orders from von der Leyens, Kubilius, and other ‘Deep State’ figures’, while others claim that he has stepped outside diplomatic boundaries and crossed red lines, or that he has become ‘a pest hiding behind diplomacy, serving the interests of the radical opposition in Georgia’.
These attacks are not isolated incidents. Imedi’s and the Georgian Dream’s tandem is usually echoed by the Kremlin-linked propaganda outlet Sputnik Georgia, reinforcing the alignment between Georgian Dream’s domestic narratives and broader Russian state-run disinformation efforts.
Targeting other EU officials and member states
Imedi’s hostility isn’t limited to the EU Ambassador. The channel has aggressively targeted other European officials, especially those who criticise democratic backsliding or human rights violations.
EU High Representative Kaja Kallas faced a barrage of attacks after she denounced Georgian Dream’s violent response to peaceful protests. Imedi labeled her as anti-Georgian, frivolous, and even claimed she was attempting to smuggle ‘dark money’ to install deep state puppets and undermine Georgia’s sovereignty.
Similarly, German Ambassador Peter Fischer was accused of violating diplomatic norms, instructing civil society, and acting as a coordinator of ‘foreign agents’. Imedi segments claimed Fischer was working to undermine Georgia’s sovereignty – echoing Georgian Dream talking points almost literally.
Other EU member state diplomats, including representatives from France, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania, and Germany, have also been attacked for attending politically sensitive court hearings or expressing support for press freedom. Coverage framed their presence as an ‘attack on judicial independence‘ and ‘external interference’.
Discrediting the European Parliament
Imedi TV has also dedicated considerable airtime to attacking the European Parliament, especially after it passed resolutions condemning Georgia’s authoritarian turn. Imedi TV spread messages dismissing these resolutions as irrelevant, describing them as ‘empty words,’ or ‘blank pages,’ and ‘baseless interference’.
The channel ran headlines such as: ‘Politically motivated resolution‘, ‘Resolution of European bureaucrats‘, ‘A resolution supported by the European Parliament that has nothing to do with European values and standards‘;
The coverage promoted classic conspiracy theories about a Western ‘Deep State’ orchestrating events in Georgia, positioning Georgian Dream as ‘the defender of national sovereignty against corrupt and collapsing Western institutions’.
A propaganda engine in the Kremlin’s shadow
The narratives propagated by Imedi TV are becoming increasingly indistinguishable from Kremlin disinformation tactics. By demonising the EU, targeting its diplomats, and discrediting independent media and civil society, Imedi plays a pivotal role in undermining Georgia’s democratic aspirations and obstructing its European integration.
As a propaganda megaphone for anti-European and authoritarian narratives, Imedi TV warrants closer scrutiny and thorough investigation into its connections with actors seeking to sabotage Georgia’s democratic and European future.
By EUvsDisinfo
