MP Archil Gorduladze: Strasbourg confirms defamation merits liability; our laws fully align with European Convention

“The Strasbourg Court has ruled that insults and the violation of human dignity must incur appropriate liability, and Georgia’s domestic legislation is in complete alignment with the European Convention,” the Chair of the Parliamentary Legal Issues Committee, MP Archil Gorduladze, has declared.

As Gorduladze noted, hate speech in Georgian public life is in decline due to the effective operations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“Misfortunes never come singly; how many more times must those who peddle hatred and oppose this country be proven wrong? The Strasbourg Court states that insults and the degradation of human dignity must carry appropriate liability. Georgia’s legislation is fully compliant with the European Convention. Indeed, this Strasbourg ruling against Slovenia even allows for criminal liability regarding insults and defamation. In terms of domestic practice, hate speech is on the decline, driven by the highly effective work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” Gorduladze noted.

For context, the European Court of Human Rights recently ruled that imposing a prison sentence for the dissemination of defamatory statements on a personal blog does not violate the right to freedom of expression.