Published on 11 March 2024
FIFTH SECTION
Application no. 41585/23
Irakli MILADZE
against Georgia
lodged on 17 November 2023
communicated on 22 February 2024
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns under Article 10 of the Convention the applicant’s conviction for an administrative offence imposed in relation to the manner in which he publicly expressed his opinions.
In particular, on 5 December 2022 the applicant, a food delivery courier, uploaded a short video of himself on TikTok, a popular video-hosting system, in which he, by swearing in an obscene manner at the Mayor of Tbilisi and, more generally, at the Tbilisi City Hall staff members and officers of the Ministry of the Interior, expressed his critical views on urban transport policies as well as on the exemption from traffic regulations that, in his opinion, certain law-enforcement agents arbitrarily possessed.
On 10 December 2022 administrative-offense proceedings were instituted against the applicant, and on 10 March 2023 the Tbilisi City Court convicted him of disorderly conduct, an offence prosecuted under Article 166 of the Code of Administrative Offences. The conviction was upheld by the Tbilisi Court of Appeals on 11 May 2023, and the applicant was sentenced to a fine of 500 Georgian laris (172 euros approximately). A reasoned copy of the final decision was served on the applicant on 19 July 2023
QUESTION TO THE PARTIES
In view of the administrative sanctioning of the applicant on account of his having posted the video on TikTok on 5 December 2022 (the fine of approximately 172 euros), can the applicant be said to have suffered a significant disadvantage within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 (b) of the Convention?
Has there been a violation of the applicant’s right to freedom of expression, contrary to Article 10 of the Convention?