Venezuelan Prisoners Protest Abuse, Shootings

In Georgia, a new police unit dedicated to “combating hate speech” has referred roughly 300 online speech cases to the courts since June — landing journalists, activists, and bloggers in jail for posts that insult public officials. Journalist Vakho Sanaia was fined $2,200 for a Facebook post, then jailed 14 days when he refused to stay quiet; an activist got 25 days; a blogger faces profanity proceedings over a single Facebook comment. Human Rights Watch warns these vague “administrative offense” laws — punishing “insult” toward officials with fines or up to 60 days in detention — have a serious chilling effect on free expression, and fall well short of Georgia’s international human rights obligations.