Lelo’s Datunashvili: GD government creates ‘morality police’ instead of solving real problems

“The glorious Georgian Dream government has today taken yet another significant and worthy step along the path of building and developing Georgian autocracy. The most immoral Georgian Dream government of all time has decided to create a ‘morality police’ instead of addressing real problems,” declared Tazo Datunashvili, a member of Strong Georgia – Lelo.

In Datunashvili’s words, this is yet another step down the road of curtailing the freedoms of Georgia’s citizens.

“The morality division will have its work cut out, since a ten-man squad will be taking on the task of monitoring the Facebook pages of three million Georgians. It will take considerable effort on the part of these fellows, and I am quite certain their labours will be duly rewarded. The most ‘humane’ Ministry of Internal Affairs announces: ‘The new division for combating hate speech has already been established.’ Right now, as you listen to me, ten members of staff are scrolling tirelessly through social media, thereby fulfilling the primary function of what is, in effect, the scroll-and-screenshot division. From this point forward, it will not be some nosy neighbour keeping an eye on your Facebook wall, but the ‘morality police’, monitoring what you think, what is on your mind, what you comment, what you write, and what emotions you express. So rest easy, Georgians.

It seems that Georgian Dream’s new political programme is quite straightforward: progressively fewer freedoms for the people, increased surveillance, fewer genuine solutions to real problems, and more screenshots of citizens’ profiles to serve the government’s interests. Bravo and well done, friends.

Shame on you, Georgian Dream. Now, in all seriousness: a ‘morality police’ has been created by a government whose very legacy includes the degradation of the Georgian language in public life; whose Secretary-General, prime ministers and presidents have, at various times, used foul language in the very chambers where Georgia’s Constitution was adopted, where Georgia’s Act of Independence was adopted, and so on.

These are the people who seek to police the language of Georgia’s citizens through an institution which, only days ago, bore the burden of the publicly filmed torture of an individual, and which, more broadly, tortures people on a systemic basis. A police force that speaks down to every single citizen; a police force that permanently, around the clock, demeans the citizens of Georgia; this, it turns out, is the institution now deemed fit to monitor the language of Georgia’s citizens. This is a shameful development and yet another step down the road of curtailing the freedoms of Georgian citizens. This will not end here; in the end, the Georgian people will prevail,” declared Tazo Datunashvili.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the newly established hate speech division of the Ministry’s Human Rights Protection Department commenced operations today.

The Ministry states that the division’s principal functions and responsibilities will comprise the monitoring and proactive identification of publicly circulated statements that are degrading or offensive to human dignity or contain hate speech, where such statements bear the hallmarks of an offence under the Administrative Offences Code of Georgia.

The Ministry further explains that the division will be responsible for identifying and establishing the identity of alleged offenders, preparing materials for administrative proceedings, drawing up administrative offence reports, and forwarding cases to the courts of general jurisdiction in accordance with the rules governing competence.