He said that expression should not violate the dignity of another person, and according to ministry staff, there has been a noticeable reduction in such incidents compared to the past.

“Our employees confirm that while such cases used to be frequent, in recent periods these actions have significantly decreased. Expression must not violate another person’s dignity,” Darakhvelidze said in comments to journalists.

He also rejected the claim that the unit responsible for addressing hate speech operates in favor of one political side.

According to him, among those fined are individuals who had insulted representatives of opposition political parties and publicly expressed such behavior.

“If there is expression of opinion and it does not cross into extreme insult or abusive language directed at specific individuals, it is of course protected by freedom of expression. As for the cases submitted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the court, you can see that almost all of them involved insults, vulgar language, and abusive content.

A person may criticize a political policy or decision, but in these cases there is clearly vulgarity, insults, and offensive conduct. It was suggested that the department works only in favor of one political side, but you can see that individuals were fined for insulting representatives of opposition parties as well.

Freedom of expression protects the right to express opinions, but not in a way that violates another person’s dignity. Once it crosses that line, it becomes abusive language that disrupts public order, and it is our duty to respond. The effect is that, according to our staff, while such incidents were frequent before, they have significantly decreased recently,” Darakhvelidze stated.