The Parliament of Georgia adopted amendments to the Broadcasting Law in the first reading. They expand the powers of the National Communications Commission to regulate the issue of “incitement to hatred.”

According to the amendments, the media will first receive a warning for distributing “hate speech and calls for terrorism in programs or advertising,” and in case of repeated violation within a year, it will be fined 0.5% of last year’s income - no less than 2.5 thousand lari ($960). For subsequent violations, the amount of the fine will increase.

The opposition and the public believe that the Commission will be able to initiate legal proceedings and apply sanctions in special cases, this could become a mechanism for punishing critical media.

However, according to the chairman of the Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobakhidze,
the bill to toughen penalties for calls for incitement to hatred and terrorism in the media is an EU directive, not the desire of the ruling party. This is how he commented on the opposition’s criticism of this initiative.
 
“The draft law was sent to the European Union, we proposed several options. They pointed to one of three options and we chose it. End of story. We have no political interest in change, this is an EU directive that is being implemented. If someone doesn’t like this bill, let them talk to the European Union,” Kobakhidze said.