A special department will be established in the Ministry of Internal Affairs as soon as possible, the main function of which will be the systematic monitoring of hate speech, offensive campaigns and aggressive communication in public space and the appropriate legal response - Mamuka Mdinaradze

As a result of quite detailed, subject-specific consultations with the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, we agreed that a special department will be established in the Ministry of Internal Affairs as soon as possible, the main function of which will be the systematic monitoring of hate speech, offensive campaigns and aggressive communication in public space and the appropriate legal response, - Mamuka Mdinaradze, Vice Prime Minister of Georgia, State Minister for Coordination of Law Enforcement Agencies, stated this at a briefing held today.

According to him, it is the state's obligation to ensure the creation of an environment where dissenting opinions are protected and at the same time, the encouragement of hatred, hostility, and insults is unacceptable.

As Mamuka Mdinaradze noted, opening the space for debate was the first important step, and today another important stage begins in this direction.

“A few months ago, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze, put forward a very important initiative related to the need to open the space for debate. He clearly stated then that certain external actors, for years, had been deliberately artificially closing the space for public discussion in order to prevent diversity of opinion, reasoned debates and constructive polemics in society. Instead, external forces encouraged confrontation, strife and polarization. Unfortunately, this process was accompanied by the establishment of offensive and aggressive rhetoric in both political and social life, a kind of standard for both political and public relations. We, as a responsible government, believe that it is the state’s obligation to ensure the creation of an environment where different opinions are protected, while at the same time encouraging hatred, hostility and insults is unacceptable. Opening the space for debate was the first important step, and from today We are moving to another important stage in this direction. As a result of quite detailed, substantive consultations with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, the Minister, we agreed that a special department will be established in the Ministry of Internal Affairs as soon as possible, the main function of which will be the systematic monitoring of hate speech, offensive campaigns and aggressive communication in the public space and the appropriate legal response. Of course, this means any type of public communication that contains hate speech, incitement to hatred, insults and other similar actions. It is fundamentally important that the aforementioned department will act proactively and the response will not depend only on a citizen's complaint. The agency itself will carry out the preparation of the monitoring, the appropriate legal assessment and, if necessary, will forward the materials to the court itself, "- noted Mamuka Mdinaradze.