US Ambassador to Georgia, Kelly Degnan, on Thursday, said: “It’s very concerning when people are living in fear of exercising their constitutionally protected rights, like freedom of expression.”

“Georgia’s history is very long, and unfortunately, there are many examples of Georgians being subjected to that kind of intimidation and censorship. And certainly, no one wants Georgia to return to that kind of repressive atmosphere,” she told media outlets.

Ambassador Degnan deemed the Georgian society ‘creative,’ “a very innovative society that has always through your literature, through your poetry, through your music, been able to express that deep devotion to freedom and independence that Georgians have, and that includes freedom of thought.”

“I think about some of your great statesmen and writers, who, in their time, were quite progressive in what they were writing about. And they were leading the way for society by setting that example and speaking out in a way that maybe others were afraid to do.

So, I think this is why it’s all the more important that Georgia continues to build its democratic institutions. That is what protects your constitutional freedoms. That is what protects your fundamental human rights. You have to have resilient, strong democratic institutions.

We see right next door in Russia what happens if you don’t have that, where people live in fear, there isn’t freedom of expression, there isn’t freedom of assembly anymore. And this has unfortunately been Russia’s history as well. So, I think it’s one of the reasons the United States has been trying to support the many, many Georgians here, civil society, NGOs, political figures here, artists, who are working so hard to protect Georgia’s reputation for freedom of expression, creativity, and we will continue to do that because we believe it is so important to Georgia’s future as a strong democracy,” the Ambassador stated.