TBILISI, DFWatch — President Mikheil Saakashvili proposes to make it a crime to publish material exposing someone’s private life.

A few days ago, the Prosecutor’s Office released information about a former government official ordering Defense Ministry officials to gather information about sexual minorities employed in the military, to make secret recordings of their lives and then blackmail them into cooperating.

The Prosecutor’s Office published a secretly recorded video. Although the faces were pixelated, people said they were able to recognize the persons in the video, which was the subject of criticism.

The president responded to this at a press conference Thursday at his palace in Tbilisi. He expressed his dissatisfaction not because of the Defense Ministry officials’ actions, but for the prosecutor publishing the video.

“My government was in force for eight years. Tell me at least one instance of official bodies releasing material containing the a person’s private life,” he said, adding that he personally controlled that such materials was not published.

“This is a very principle and painful issue for me,” the president said, adding that he proposes a bill which will make it a crime to publish such material and if the government has such material in its possession, it must destroy it.


The president said the Prosecutor’s Office has a record of being uncivilized.

“I don’t know any prosecutor’s office or government body in the world which has published material about a person’s private life and given it to journalists.”

The president thinks the actions by the Office was a crime and something that should be condemned.

“This is what Russian oligarchs and people grown along with Russian oligarchs studied in Russia. They do what they have learned,” Mikheil Saakashvili added.