MP Tengiz Sharmanashvili: Strasbourg Court reaffirms that freedom of expression has boundaries and legal limits

“The Strasbourg Court has ruled that freedom of expression is subject to clear boundaries and legal limitations,” MP Tengiz Sharmanashvili, a member of the parliamentary majority, told the GPB First Channel.

According to him, the Strasbourg Court has made it explicitly clear that freedom of expression does not confer a right to insult individuals.

“This was already an established principle, and it has simply been reaffirmed once again. You are entirely free to hold a critical perspective and express an opposing view, but you naturally do not have the right to express it in an outright abusive manner. Those who monitor and regulate hate speech do not take into account a person’s political opinions or which faction they support,” Tengiz Sharmanashvili stated.

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.