Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) and Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Georgia held a discussion Internet, as Human Right on Saturday, 6th December, at Multimedia Education Center.

Discussion was related to 25th anniversary of World Wide Web (WWW) and International Day of Human Rights, which is celebrated annually on 10th December.

The aim of the event was to discuss the main threats for human rights through the internet, in particular: censorship, secret surveillance, copyright, hate speech, etc. 

Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Georgia and Armenia, Hans Horbach and Director at IDFI Giorgi Kldiashvili gave opening speeches at the beginning of the discussion.

Key Speaker Xander Bouwman, Dutch blogger spoke about international practice of defending human rights through the internet. Later, the speakers, invited for the first panel of the discussion made their speeches about internet related problems existing in Georgia. 

Lasha Tughushi, member of the commission on secret surveillance, mentioned that every person in Georgia is a victim of secret surveillance. David Lee, President of Magticom who gave a speech on Internet penetration in Georgia stated, that neither he neither his company has never wiretapped anyone illegally.

Gubaz Koberidze, member of “no Hate Speech Movement’s” follow up group spoke on hate speech through the internet. He underlined, that to distinguish free speech from hate speech is quite easy, though absolute control of posts in social sets, especially in secret groups is very hard. George Gogua, journalist and photographer at RFERL continued speaking about control and censorship. He explained that controlling posts in secret groups of social sets is almost impossible, but existences of certain filters are necessary.

Topic of second panel was regulations. Invited speakers: media expert Zviad Koridze, User’s rights protection inspector Tamta Tepnadze, head of international relations and communications at Office of the Personal Data Protection Inspector Department 

Nino Sarishvili and Secretary of the Council at Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, David Kldiashvili discussed the possible solutions of existing problems. 

Tamta Tepnadze stated, that When internet providers do not meet their obligations users should refer to The Defender of Consumers' Rights at GNCC. According to Zviad Koridze, internet is one of the fundamental human rights and it should be defended like other rights. David Kldiashvili made an accent on legal aspects of internet freedom and regulations. A big part of Nino Sarishvili’s speech was dedicated to the issue of secret surveillance.

Attendees were actively involved in Q & A part and discussion.

The livestream of event was provided. Also, interesting quotes, photos, stickers and other info was operatively updated on facebook page and twitter account of IDFI during the discussion.

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