Stockholm, April 4, 2024\u2014The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the ruling Georgian Dream party’s Tuesday reintroduction into the Georgian parliament of a proposed \u201cforeign agents\u201d law previously shelved after mass protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGeorgian authorities\u2019 revival of a bill that would smear media outlets as foreign-controlled is deeply concerning and utterly incompatible with their claim of aligning with European democratic standards and threatens press freedom ahead of the October parliamentary elections<\/a>,\u201d said Gulnoza Said, CPJ\u2019s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. \u201cThe ruling Georgian Dream party should withdraw the law and renounce any form of \u2018foreign agent\u2019 legislation if Georgia wants to succeed in its bid to join the European Union<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The draft law, \u201cOn transparency of foreign influence,\u201d would require nonprofits and media outlets receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to join a registry and provide detailed annual financial accounts, according to media<\/a> reports<\/a> and Georgia\u2019s parliamentary website<\/a>. Organizations that fail to register or to provide such data would be subject to fines of 25,000 lari (US$9,500).<\/p>\n\n\n\n A statement<\/a> published on the party\u2019s Facebook page said the bill is largely identical to a bill with the same name dropped by parliament<\/a> in March 2023 following widespread protests. The only change is that the term \u201cagent of foreign influence\u201d has been replaced by that of \u201corganization pursuing the interests of a foreign power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Georgian Dream, which controls a parliamentary majority, vowed in its statement to pass the law by the end of the current parliamentary session in June. The party’s majority is large enough to override Georgia\u2019s president, who previously said<\/a> she would veto it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The proposed law, which was previously criticized by CPJ<\/a>, is similar to Russia\u2019s foreign agent legislation,<\/a> except that it does not currently require media outlets to label their publications as produced by a foreign agent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Tuesday, Kyrgyzstan ratified a Russia-style foreign agents law<\/a> requiring some nonprofit media organizations to register as \u201cforeign representatives\u201d and label their publications as produced or distributed by a foreign representative.<\/p>\n\n
\r\nThis content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists<\/a> and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
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