On January 29, 2020, in Strasbourg, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria, together with First Deputy Public Defender Tamar Gvaramadze, spoke in detail about freedom of expression, hate speech and media independence with Artemiza Chiska, Executive Secretary of Council of Europe’s Steering CommitteeonMedia and Information Society.

The Public Defender named the legislative gap regarding the determination of journalists’ status as one of the main problems. According to Nino Lomjaria, the lack of determination of the status at the legislative level creates difficulties in the legal assessment and categorization of criminal offenses committed against journalists. The Public Defender also spoke about the crackdown of the June 20-21 rally that left more than 30 journalists injured, but according to her, no interference with their activities has been identified so far.

The conversation also touched upon the human rights challenges in the era of digital media and artificial intelligence.