Right of Reply in Tbilisi, Georgia

Right of Reply

What is the right of reply?

A person whose honour and dignity have been infringed by information published in mass-information means has the right to publish reply information in the same means. This is a right recognised by law, not merely an ethical option.

Where must the reply be published?

In the same means that disseminated the infringing material. The refutation instrument is built on the same principle: the same channel, the same audience.

May a relative exercise this right?

Yes. The rights of Article 18 may be exercised by a person with an interest worthy of protection, and this protection continues after death. However, the proprietary claim of moral damage after death is inadmissible.

Is compensation excluded by the public-interest exception?

No obligation arises for statements serving lawful public interests. But disseminating evidently incorrect facts is not covered by this exception.

4 min·9 Jan 2026

The Right of Reply: What It Is and How It Works

The right of reply exists for cases where material published in the media or another public channel concerns a specific person and that person wants the same audience to see their position as well. The Civil Code places this instrument in the chapter on personal non-property rights and describes it as the mechanism of response and reply information. Special media legislation separately regulates the procedures of reply, but the civil-law core lies precisely in the Code.

The Right to Publish Reply Information

The foundation of the instrument is Article 18 of the Civil Code. Under its fourth part, a person whose honour and dignity have been infringed by information published in mass-information means has the right to publish reply information in the same means of information. This means the reply is not merely an ethical option: it is a right recognised by law, and the form of its exercise is precisely defined — through the same means that disseminated the infringing material.

The refutation mechanism is built on the same logic: where information infringing a person's honour, dignity, business reputation or the secrecy of private life has been disseminated through mass-information means, its refutation must likewise occur through those means. And where such data are contained in a document issued by an organisation, that document must be replaced and the interested persons notified. The right of reply is part of this construction, and its practical strength lies precisely in the precision of the form: the same channel, the same audience.

The General Frame of Protection

The right of reply is an element of broader protection. A person has the right, through the court and in the manner established by law, to protect honour, dignity, the secrecy of private life, personal inviolability or business reputation from infringement. On infringement, a claim of compensation also arises: a person may demand compensation of the profit the infringer obtained, and in case of culpable infringement also compensation for moral damage, independent of the pecuniary. Thus the reply is the first step, and compensation an element of the full dispute.