Just over a year after it was withdrawn, the controversial bill on “foreign agents” is back in the spotlight in Georgia, and, again, several thousand people are taking to the streets of Tbilisi every evening. Georgian and European flags in hand, they demand withdrawal of the bill and denounce Russian influence on the policies of the executive, led by the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili’s pro-Russian Georgian Dream party.
Copied from the Russian law of 2012, the text on “foreign agents”, adopted at first reading on 17 April, would oblige NGOs and independent media whose revenues come from more than 20 percent of foreign donors to register as organisations “representing the interests of a foreign power”. As such, they would be subject to control by the Ministry of Justice and could be forced to disclose sensitive information on pain of heavy fines.
The measure, which is all the more controversial given the dependence of many independent media outlets and NGOs on Western funding, would mark a halt to the European ambitions of Georgia, which last December obtained the status of candidate country for EU membership.
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