Sky News uses footage of ruins of South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, says it is Georgia's key town of Gori

Pravda
Aug. 17, 2008

Sky New lies giving ruins of South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, for Georgia’s key town of Gori, which they say Russian bombed.

The channel simply used the footage of Tskhinvali, which was literally ruined as a result of Georgia’s attacks, to make reports about the situation in the town of Gori, which the Russian aviation supposedly bombed.

Pravda.ru journalists concluded that the footage of destruction, fires and crying civilians used by Sky News in its Gori report was identical to the footage aired by Russian TV channel Zvezda (Star) when it reported about Tskhinvali.

On Wednesday, Sky News made a report about Russian tanks supposedly advancing towards Georgia’s Gori (the information was subsequently rebutted). The company aired the footage, which showed that the small town had been destroyed.

Georgian authorities and Western media outlets previously said that the Russian aviation had bombed Gori, which led to numerous casualties. Russia strongly rejected those statements.

The footage aired by the British TV channel was preceded with a picture of a road sign displaying the name of the town – Gori – written in Georgian and English languages. The report also said that a Sky News correspondent was reporting from the Georgian town.

However, the footage that followed the picture of the road sign was fake.

Russia ’s TV channel Zvezda, which has five camera crews working in Tskhinvali, aired the same footage two days before, on Monday. Sky News showed its report with no sound, whereas the people showed in the Russian report could be heard speaking Russian and Ossetian languages. The crying people shown in the report were heard cursing Georgian President Saakashvili for destructions and manslaughter.

Pravda.ru managed to find the reports of Sky News and Zvezda. Watch and compare for yourself.

Sky News:

Zvezda:

Prepared by Dmitry Sudakov