Opinion: 'Georgian government’s goal is to intimidate people'

“Georgian Dream’s goal is to carry out political justice and intimidate the public. They want to do this systematically and preventively,” said former deputy Public Defender of Georgia Giorgi Burjanadze, commenting on reports about the creation of a special unit within the Interior Ministry to monitor “aggressive communication in the public sphere”.

Georgia to create agency to monitor ‘aggressive communication in public spaces’

At this stage, it remains unclear what criteria will be used to determine what constitutes hate speech or offensive communication.

According to Giorgi Burjanadze, the ruling Georgian Dream party has already embedded a repressive mechanism into legislation, while the newly announced unit was created to enforce it systematically.

The Georgian authorities plan to create a new special unit within the Interior Ministry. The unit will monitor and respond through legal measures to hate speech, abusive campaigns and aggressive communication in the public sphere.

Giorgi Burjanadze said:

“This continues the repressive methods they have already introduced. Authorities have already fined many people or placed them in detention over social media posts.

In other words, the government has already been doing this. Now it wants to make the practice systematic and more intimidating. They have adopted draconian laws under which they can punish you if you describe them in ways they dislike.

The main problem — the repressive mechanism — already exists. Now the question is: who will enforce it? That is why they are creating a special unit.

By establishing it, they are trying to create widespread fear. They want to show that this will be large-scale, that it will affect everyone and that they will carry it out more effectively.

This is an attempt at intimidation. It closely resembles the actions of authoritarian states, where authorities control acceptable forms of expression on social media.”

Political prisoners, repression and sanctions: debate on Georgia in European Parliament

Members of the European Parliament protested against political repression targeting opposition figures, journalists and civil society activists.

“The main goal is to continue the harm they have already started through courts under their control, make it more systematic and instil even greater fear in people.

Their aim is to carry out political justice: if they dislike someone — a hypothetical Giorgi, for example — or if that person angers them, they need to find a way to punish him.

This is an act of intimidation: the message is, ‘Do not criticise us, otherwise we will be able to reach anyone through legal means.’”

The goals of Georgia’s government