"The Russian law on 'foreign agents' is not Georgia's choice." Joint protest of NGOs and media

JAMnews

Tbilisi

NGOs and media protest foreign agents law

260 NGOs operating in Georgia have responded with a joint statement to a draft law submitted to Parliament last week that would create a register of so-called foreign agents.

The law, titled “Transparency of Foreign Influence,” was drafted by the People’s Power movement, which consists of deputies who formally split from the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Human rights activists and media organizations call this initiative a “Russian law” and say it is directed against the citizens of Georgia.

“This law will render women, children, the disabled and other groups even more vulnerable. It also aims to disenfranchise disadvantaged families, farmers, illegally dismissed miners, displaced persons, the homeless, and other citizens who need protection of their rights. The voice of people living in the mountains and other regions, who have access to the public only through local independent media, must also not be silenced,” the statement says.

Its authors note that after the introduction of a similar law in Russia, many organizations were forced to shut down.

“Those who kept going were subjected to increasing controls, persecution and repression. Russian law is not Georgia’s choice, for which we have been fighting for decades.”

The statement says that the adoption of this law will be an encroachment on the main human values of self-esteem, independence and civil solidarity.

“In addition, the adoption of the bill will cause serious damage to the process of the country’s integration into Europe, including slowing down Georgia’s progress towards EU membership, because there is no similar law in any other member state. In addition, this law would cause immeasurable harm to hundreds of thousands of Georgian citizens,” the statement says.

Briefly: What does the Agents of Foreign Influence Bill mean?

The deputies, who formally separated from the ruling Georgian Dream party and founded the Power of the People movement, registered a draft law on the transparency of foreign influence in parliament on February 17. According to the deputies, this bill will affect the activities of organizations working with foreign funding.

Georgian non-governmental organizations receiving funding from foreign sources will have to enter the register of “foreign agents”. According to one of the leaders of the movement and former public defender Sozar Subari, this will be a Western analogue of the law, designed to make funding transparent, which has nothing to do with the Russian model.

According to another leader of the Power of the People, Guram Macharashvili, based on the principles of openness and transparency, the public should know the sources of income not only for politicians who make decisions, but also for NGOs and media that influence public decisions and participate in shaping public opinion or take active participation in discussions held by legislative and executive authorities when adopting laws or decisions.

According to Macharashvili, the issue of registration of the above entities as agents of foreign influence is provided by the National Agency of the State Register.

The position of the editors of JAMnews:

Statement signed by JAMnews. We fully share the protest of Georgian civil society regarding the mentioned bill.

We, the editors and journalists of JAMnews, who have been working in the Caucasus region (including the North Caucasus) for years, know better than anyone what has led up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Prior to this catastrophe, dissent was persecuted. Opponents of the government were sent to prison, elections were rigged, and civil society was subjugated by the authorities.

War on objective information began in 2017 with their law on “foreign agents”. Over time this law has changed, and today not only an organization, but also any citizen can be declared a “foreign agent” in Russia, since the concept of “an affiliated person or a person under the influence of a foreign agent” was introduced into the law.

Now the same thing could happen in Georgia. This should stand as a very clear and unambiguous message to everyone.

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On February 20, the draft law “On the Transparency of Foreign Influence”, initiated by the “People’s Power” movement, was registered at a meeting of the Bureau of Parliament and submitted to the legal committee for consideration.

Simultaneously with the meeting of the bureau, on February 20, media representatives held a protest action in parliament. In their opinion, if the law is adopted the existence of free media in the country will be prohibited by law.