Achi news desk-
TBILisi, Georgia (AP) – Georgia’s parliament has voted in the first reading to approve a proposed law that would require media and non-commercial organizations to register as being under foreign influence if they receive more than 20% from their funding from abroad.
Opponents say the proposal would hinder Georgia’s long-held prospects of joining the European Union. They denounce it as “Russian law” because Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatize independent news media and organizations deemed at odds with the Kremlin.
“If adopted, it will bring Georgia in line with Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus and those countries where human rights are violated. It will destroy Georgia’s European path,” said Giorgi Rukhadze, founder of the Georgian Center for Strategic Analysis.
Although Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili would veto the law if it is passed by parliament in the third reading, the ruling party can override the veto by gathering 76 votes. The speaker of parliament can then sign it into law.
The measure is almost identical to a proposal that the ruling party was pressured to withdraw last year after large street protests. Police in the capital, Tbilisi, used tear gas on Tuesday to break up a large demonstration outside parliament.
The only wording change from the previous draft law states that non-commercial organizations and news media that receive 20% or more of their funding from abroad would have to register as “following the interests of a foreign power .” The previous draft law said “agents of foreign influence.”
Zaza Bibilashvili with the civil society group Chavchavadze Center called the vote on the law “an existential choice.”
He suggested that he would create an Iron Curtain between Georgia and the EU, calling it a way to keep Georgia “in Russia’s sphere of influence and away from Europe.”
The Associated Press
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