TBILISI, August 27 – With local elections a little over a month away, Georgia’s public defender, Levan Ioseliani, has called on political parties and politicians to avoid hate speech.
He warned that both insults and slander are creeping into the campaign, though he did not cite specific cases, saying he will make an assessment closer to election day.
Analysts note that harsh rhetoric is now common across Georgia’s polarized political scene. Some opposition figures, like Aleko Elisashvili, have drawn attention for his personal attacks on Tbilisi’s mayor, while the parliament speaker, Shalva Papuashvili, recently branded opposition leaders “liars and fraudsters.” Ruling party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili has also lashed out, once calling an opponent a “scoundrel.”
Some commentators have pointed out that the opposition parties, and in particularly Lelo and For Georgia, are going too far by labeling ruling party figures as traitors or Kremlin agents, which critics describe as slander disguised as politics.
The ruling party recently changed the burden of proof in libel cases to conform with the practice in the United Kingdom, where the burden of proof is on the defendant to prove that what they said is true.
