Media.ge, Tbilisi, 16 Jan 2009 – The Dutch broadcaster, NOS (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting), has rejected the Georgian authorities’ claims that its report on the August war was “false and misleading”.
The Georgian authorities were in particular angered with the part of the report aired on January 3 in which the author, journalist Kiesje Hekster, says that “it seems clear, it was the Georgian president who started the war with Russia. He apparently saw the war as a game, a game which Nino [Matkava] risked her life.” In the report Nino Matkava, who was in the Georgian army service till 2006 and served in the reserve troops during the August war, tells about her personal experience of the war.
NOS, which is part of the Dutch public broadcasting system, had to study the report after the Georgian Foreign Ministry, in particular Georgian ambassador to the Netherlands, raised the issue before the broadcaster.
“In my opinion there is no serious reason to question the item of Mrs. Hekster, with one exception; it was better if she had talked about a ‘political game’ instead of ‘a game’,” Ton van Brussel, NOS ombudsman dealing with complaints, told Civil.Ge via e-mail on January 16.
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