“Netgazeti” and “Batumelebi” apologized for the misinformation, which on Monday [April 22] claimed that 20 hectares of forest and land plot had been given by the Government to the Speaker of the Parliament for GEL 1.

“The standard of journalistic ethics has always been, is and will be the main thing for our editorial office that is why you are reading this text now. No one is suffering more than us from this mistake we made, but due to the current situation and the pressure we have been constantly under for the past few weeks, we have made a mistake, for which we once again apologies to our readers”, - reads the statement.

Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday responded to the fake news by saying that the information spread by Netgazeti and Batumelebi was an “absolute lie”.

“In the absence of the transparency bill it was unknown who was funding both news outlets. However, experience shows us that such disinformation media is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and the European Endowment for Democracy. Of course, I will talk about this disinformation with the embassies that are behind the funding of this media”, - said the Speaker.