Tbilisi Mayor: Freedom of speech and expression does not grant licence to swear and insult

“Freedom of speech and expression is protected in our country today. Freedom of speech and expression does not grant a licence to swear and hurl insults,” stated Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze when speaking to journalists.

Kaladze was responding to a statement issued by the US Embassy in Georgia regarding the newly established Department for Combating Hate Speech.

As Kaladze noted, obscenity and insults constitute a direct infringement upon the rights of others.

“Freedom of speech and expression is protected in this country today. I believe we can all agree that obscenity and hurling abuse are fundamentally unacceptable. Verbal abuse or physical aggression are not a proper way to interact. How can it be acceptable to insult someone, even in the digital sphere? Freedom of speech and expression does not mean swearing and inflicting insults. That is, after all, an infringement upon the rights of others.

Therefore, we must all agree on one thing: relationships must be grounded in mutual respect. You may well disagree with one another’s political views or decisions, and criticism is entirely acceptable. I repeat, this must remain within the bounds of decency, not degenerate into abuse, swearing, and defamation,” the Mayor of Tbilisi stated.

Regarding a reset in relations with the United States, Kakha Kaladze noted that the Georgian side views the matter with optimism.

“We remain optimistic. We stand ready to turn over a new leaf in our relations. We find the stance adopted by the Biden administration entirely unacceptable, and decisions built upon falsehoods and lies, an unjust attitude, are intolerable to us. The current Trump administration possesses the opportunity to rectify the previous administration’s unfair approach with great ease,” the Mayor of Tbilisi stated.