TBILISI, DFWatch – Three national TV channels in Georgia selectively left out parts of a new survey.

The survey was done by the International Republican Institute, which is affiliated with the Republican party in the United States and is in Georgia to develop democracy.

When reporting on the survey, all three channels left out the church when presenting a list of which institutions enjoy the most trust among the population. They placed the army, the police, the president’s office and parliament at the top, but failed to mention the church, which was number one.

This remarkable coincidence of the same omission occurring on three TV channels the same day was the topic of a discussion on independent Maestro TV Friday (see video), where the corresponding clips were shown, taken from Rustavi 2, Imedi and Georgian Public Broadcaster.

According to the IRI survey, 92 % of those questioned trust the church, 90 % the army, 90 % the police, 71% the president’s office and 69% parliament.

This is not the first time government-controlled channels have near identical reports about the same topic.