Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said she would not support a bill to regulate the media and non-governmental organizations, initiated by a group of anti-Western lawmakers in Georgia’s parliament.
“At a time when the initial assessment of the implementation of the 12 recommendations of the European Commission is being prepared, where the approach of February 24 for the three countries of the associated Trio (i.e. Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – N.Ch.) makes the question of the European future more and more urgent, it is precisely this time that one of the political groups chooses to initiate a law which, in its content, brings us closer not from Europe, but from Russia’s vicious model,†reads a statement posted on the presidential administration’s website on February 20.
Zurabishvili also draws attention to the fact that the bill was registered in Parliament during the visit of US Senators Jean Shaheen and Dick Durbin to Georgia.
“We really can’t blame it all on chance. A force has emerged which, instead of strengthening Georgia’s European path, considers another path to be Georgia’s interest,†the Georgian president said in a statement.
It should be noted that on February 20, a draft law on transparency of foreign influence was registered in the Georgian parliament. The initiative belongs to the Power of the People movement, which is made up of former members of the ruling Georgian Dream party, who, despite splitting from the ruling party last June, continue to be part of the parliamentary majority.
According to them, all entities falling under the concept of “agent of foreign influence” will be required to declare their financial income and expenditure, which will “significantly contribute” to ensuring the national security of Georgia. Meanwhile, in the case of the media, according to the MPs, the rules they have proposed will “prevent the spread of lies”, as they will give the state the right to “respond appropriately”.
Interestingly, the authors of the bill claimed to have been guided by “American experience”, specifically the “Foreign Agents Registration Act” (FARA) in force in the United States since 1938. Although after the Department of State ruled out that there was a commonality between the American law and the Georgian bill, “people power”, as well as the ruling party, they started saying that the proposed bill was individual, that it was “Georgian law” and that it differed from both American and Russian law.
Before the bill is put to the vote, it will be examined by parliamentary committees. The ruling Georgian Dream party, which has a majority in parliament, has already announced that it would support him. It should be noted that even if the president vetoes the law, the ruling party will be able to overcome it.
At the same time, Irakli Kobakhidze, president of the Georgian Dream, noted that the Georgian president “opposes his veto to a law which does not yet exist” and whose text is still unknown. “It makes you smile,†he says.
Kobakhidze also said the president most likely made her statement on the bill “against emotion.”
“I am sure that Zurabishvili did not read either US law or Russian law and made this statement only on an emotional background. It is his right,†Kobakhidze said on February 21.
Several hundred Georgian NGOs and media have signed a statement against the adoption of the law on foreign agents.
“After a similar law was passed in Russia, many organizations abandoned it and closed. Those who continued to operate were victims of increasing controls, persecutions and repressions. Russian law is not the choice of Georgia, for which we have been fighting for decades,†say representatives of Georgian civil society and the media.
