Protests called as Georgia revives controversial ‘foreign agents’ law
Al Jazeera
Governing party hopes to pass legislation, dropped last year amid mass demonstrations, before October elections.
Pro-democracy groups have called for protests after Georgia’s governing party said it will revive the controversial “foreign agents law” that mass demonstrations forced it to drop last year.
The governing Georgian Dream party said on Wednesday that it plans to make another bid to pass the legislation, which would require organisations that accept funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents”. The measure is viewed as a threat to civil society and free media.
Likened by critics – including Georgia’s pro-EU president – to laws that Russian President Vladimir Putin has used to crush dissent, the proposed bill would, if passed, require Georgian organisations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register or face penalties.
The announcement of the bid to revive the controversial legislation comes just more than a year after it dropped the bill under pressure from tens of thousands of protesters in Tbilisi.
Demonstrators in the capital clashed with police, who fired water cannon and tear gas at the crowds, over several days in March 2023.
