Incident type: Censorship

According to Mamuka Mdinaradze, State Minister for Coordination Among Law Enforcement Agencies, a new division will be established within the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Its function will be to monitor hate speech, offensive campaigns, and aggressive communication in the public sphere.

According to Mdinaradze, the division will observe any type of public communication, including statements that the government assesses as containing hate speech, inciting strife, violating personal dignity, or other communications of a similar nature.

He further stated that the division will operate proactively, and its response will not rely solely on citizen complaints. The agency itself will conduct monitoring and legal assessments, forwarding materials to the court when necessary.

Mdinaradze claimed that the goal of the new mechanism is not to restrict freedom of expression. According to him, “no one will be subjected to an administrative penalty for criticism.” However, in cases where communication takes on an offensive or strife-inciting character, the court may even impose administrative imprisonment.

The initiative to create this new division is particularly noteworthy against the backdrop of recent trends in Georgia, where there have been numerous instances of individuals facing administrative liability for public expression, including social media posts. In response to Mdinaradze’s announcement, Tamar Oniani, Chairperson of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, stated that the proposed mechanism “appears to be a form of censorship and has nothing to do with the balance of interests in a democratic society.”

On January 28 and February 16, 2026, “Georgian Dream” initiated a package of legislative amendments concerning the Law on Grants, the Criminal Code, the Code of Administrative Offenses, and the Law on Political Associations of Citizens. On March 4, during a plenary session, “Georgian Dream” passed these changes in the third and final reading.

The adopted amendments significantly tighten regulations regarding foreign funding and expand the definition of a “grant” to include financial as well as in-kind resources and technical assistance that could be used to influence Georgia’s political processes. The bill also imposes additional restrictions on political activity, including prohibiting employees of organizations receiving foreign funding from holding membership in political parties and increasing accountability for so-called “external lobbying.”

The legislative package also included changes to the Criminal Code, according to which the systemic non-recognition of the government and public, systematic calls for mass violation of legislation, disobedience toward government bodies, or the creation of alternative government bodies become punishable offenses. The law will enter into force immediately upon its official publication.