#1 Freedom of expression weakened by financial burdens and hate-speech monitoring
Media outlets continue their work despite financial repression and heavy operational burdens
On 21 May 2026, the Communications Commission (ComCom), Georgia’s state media regulator, fined the opposition-leaning Formula TV GEL 2,500 [EUR 800] over alleged breaches introduced through the April 2025 amendments to the broadcasting laws. Some media outlets in Georgia are facing significant financial burdens following the legal restrictions on foreign funding. These burdens for some of them, for example Formula and TV Pirveli, resulted in temporary signal disruptions over debts to the operator and are currently at risk of closure. In response, other critical media outlets make efforts to obtain financial support through crowdfunding and subscription. For example, members of the public have launched a financial support campaign for Batumelebi/Netgazeti, an independent media founded by Mzia Amaghlobeli.
Authorities expand restrictions on freedom of expression as institutions are set to monitor “hate speech” in public spaces and online
Georgia's Interior Ministry is to establish a dedicated unit to proactively monitor and respond to "hate speech, offensive campaigns, and aggressive communication" in public spaces, including social media, without waiting for citizen complaints and with the power to refer cases to court independently. The announcement was made by State Minister for Coordination of Law Enforcement Bodies, Mamuka Mdinaradze, a former security service chief. It follows the February 2025 legislative amendments that made insulting public officials an administrative offence – a measure under which critics have already been fined and detained. Human rights organisations have condemned the new unit as a censorship mechanism, with one observer noting that hate speech monitoring in a democratic system should fall to the public defender rather than the police. The government, meanwhile, denied any intent to restrict free expression, framing the initiative as consistent with practices in the UK, France, and Germany.
#2 Growing tensions over right to peaceful assembly
Largest protest on the street in months
Thousands took to the streets in Tbilisi on 26 May, Georgia's Independence Day, in the largest protest in recent months. The participants marched from Tbilisi State University to the parliament along Rustaveli Avenue. The rally was organised by a nine-party opposition alliance, which launched a new campaign under the slogan "Georgia deserves better," centered on unified opposition to the government's current course.
First criminal sentences against peaceful protesters
On 29 May 2026, the Tbilisi City Court brought the first criminal sentence against a peaceful protester. Zurab Menteshashvili, 61, has become the first person convicted under October 2025 amendments criminalising repeated protest-related offences, receiving a nine-month prison sentence for "repeated road blockage" during anti-government demonstrations on Rustaveli Avenue. Having already served seven months in pre-trial detention, he is expected to be released in August. He was initially detained administratively in October 2025, and his re-arrest a week later triggered the criminal charge under Article 347 of the Criminal Code. He has reportedly been on hunger strike and told the court defiantly: "Here I stand, I can do no other." The conviction comes amid a steady tightening of protest legislation since Georgian Dream suspended EU integration in November 2024, with hundreds fined and detained for road blockage and, since December 2025, for merely standing on pavements. A second protester, Shalva Esartia, faces similar criminal charges and remains in pre-trial detention.
The court also handed down the first prison sentences against a group of ten people tried over the October 4, 2025, election-day unrest and rally at the presidential palace, including prominent political figures, which independent Georgian watchdog organisations describe as act of political persecution.
First arrests of police officers over abuses during the 2024 protests
Georgian prosecutors arrested three and identified two further suspects, all current or former Interior Ministry Special Tasks Department officers, over violent assaults on journalist Guram Rogava, opposition politician Levan Khabeishvili, and protester Zviad Maisashvili during the 2024–2025 protests. The arrests, announced on 7 May, mark the first police accountability action since the crackdown. They followed a television investigation by Formula TV identifying one of the officers, after which prosecutors said they had conducted thousands of investigative actions and interviewed over 550 witnesses. All five face five to eight years in prison for exceeding official authority with violence.
#3 International attention
The European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a critical report on Georgia on 5 May, citing democratic backsliding on all EU candidacy conditions, accusing the ruling Georgian Dream party of anti-EU disinformation, and calling for sanctions against its leadership, including Bidzina Ivanishvili, while warning about repressive laws such as limits on foreign funding. The Georgian Foreign Ministry swiftly rejected the report. Also, the Council of Europe`s Committee of Ministers reaffirmed Georgia’s territorial integrity, condemned Russia’s actions in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region, and called for compliance with the 2008 ceasefire, even as Moscow deepened ties with the breakaway regions.