Protection of personal information
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Monday, October 20
Mayor of Tbilisi Davit Narmania and General Director of Rustavi 2 TV Nika Gvaramia plan to appeal with regard to illegal wiretapping.
Narmania’s decision followed the secret uploading of a video file on YouTube October 16.
The video file contained materials showing the Head of Public Relations Department and other staff members of the Mayor’s Office.
Mayor’s office has not made a comment about who could have filmed the video, but they state it was illegal.
“I think that the video was filmed by people who want to cause the destruction of the Mayor’s office. This fact in itself is a criminal offence,” stated Narmania.
Gvaramia said that his personal mail and Skype were hacked. According to Gvaramia, the Prosecutor’s Office has not responded to his application yet.
“The information was leaked either because of the negligence of law enforcement or it was leaked intentionally,” said Gvaramia.
Journalist Lasha Tughushi who is co-author of the draft law about illegal eavesdropping and Illegal surveillance said that his personal mail was also hacked.
“Of course it is very important that personal information is protected, that’s why we all need that law to work as it is supposed to,” stated Tughushi.
When talking about the illegal wiretapping problem Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili said that:
“I am waiting for the results of the investigation regarding the more than 28,000 files which where recorded illegally during the last few years. The law needs to be much more severe in this regard,” stated Nanuashvili.
Inspector for the protection of personal data Tamar Kaldani said that the situation has partly improved. “However, this law is new and is not totally finished, that’s why it has some problems,” stated Kaldani.
