Fake invasion news panics Georgia

Story from BBC NEWS:
europe/8566571.stm

Published: 2010/03/14 10:22:46 GMT

Panic was sparked in Georgia after a TV station broadcast news that
Russian tanks had invaded the capital and the country’s president was
dead.

The Imedi network report, which brought back memories of the 2008 war
between Russia and Georgia, was false.

But mobile phone networks were overwhelmed with calls and many people
rushed onto the streets.

Imedi said the aim had been to show how events might unfold if the
president were killed. It later apologised.

The head of the holding company which owns Imedi TV, George Arveladze,
said he was sorry for the distress that the TV report had caused.

‘Disgusting’

For a brief moment on Saturday evening many Georgians thought history
was repeating itself, the BBC’s Tom Esslemont in Tbilisi says.

MEDIA HOAXES

1926 – mass anxiety after a BBC report of a murderous riot in London.
It was a spoof by a literary priest
1938 – thousands flee after a CBS Radio report on Martians landing in
New Jersey. It was a radio version of HG Wells War of the Worlds
1994 – panic in Taiyuan, China, after a TV report of a deadly creature
on the loose. It was a commercial for a new brand of liquor
It is only 18 months since Russian tanks came within 45km (28 miles)
of the Georgian capital, our correspondent adds.

In its news report, pro-government Imedi TV showed archive footage of
the war and imagined how opposition figures might seize power after an
assassination of the country’s President, Mikheil Saakashvili.

Although the broadcast was introduced as a simulation of possible
events, the warning was lost on many Georgians, our correspondent
says.

One local news agency reported that emergency services had received an
unusually high volume of calls in the ensuing minutes.

And once calm returned, the report was seen by some as a poorly
disguised swipe at the Georgian opposition politicians who recently
travelled to Moscow to meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Mr Arveladze told Reuters that the aim was to show "the real threat"
of how events might unfold.

That did not stop dozens of journalists and angry Georgians who
gathered outside the Imedi TV studios to protest.

One opposition politician who was there labelled the report "disgusting".