This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
A widely criticized new law that threatens to publicly discredit thousands of media outlets and civil society groups as “serving” outside powers went into effect in Georgia on August 1, two months after the ruling party swept aside a maelstrom of domestic protest and international warnings that passage endangers further integration with the West.
Multiple lawsuits are still pending that challenge the law’s constitutionality, including President Salome Zurabishvili’s first-ever appeal to the Constitutional Court.
The new law obliges independent groups and media outlets that receive 20 percent of their funding from abroad to join a public registry that suggests they are “serving foreign interests.” Its enactment on June 3 included a 60-day preparatory period.
“Everything is ready from August 1, [and] organizations that meet these criteria can apply to us,” Justice Minister Rati Bregadze, whose ministry will run the registry, announced at a press briefing on July 30.
Noncompliance can be punished with ongoing fines.
An overwhelming majority of Georgia’s 10,000 or so nonprofits are thought to receive funding from abroad.
Dozens of prominent organizations have vowed not to comply with the law, but activists say the accompanying fines would sink many smaller NGOs.
Passage in May of the Law On Transparency Of Foreign Influence came more than a year after the ruling Georgian Dream and its allies bowed to pressure over a similar bill that described groups funded from abroad as foreign “agents.”
Tens of thousands of Georgians braved a brutal crackdown and violent retaliation to demonstrate against the slightly reworded bill in mid-April, whose aim and effect have been likened to decade-old legislation in Russia that has contributed to a fierce clampdown on independent media and public dissent.
Most protesters refer to it simply as “the Russian law.” Many other Georgians, along with outside critics, call it the “foreign agent” law.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze argues the law will promote “transparency” and national sovereignty, although NGOs were already required to disclose their funding to the government.
Three legal challenges have already been filed with Georgia’s Constitutional Court, with the plaintiffs in each case requesting a stay against enforcement until the dispute is resolved.
The first came from Zurabishvili, whose veto of the law was overridden in an 84-4 vote in the 150-member parliament that was boycotted by the opposition. Zurabishvili has had a dramatic falling out with the Georgian Dream party since it backed her candidacy for president in 2018, as critics have accused it of adopting pro-Moscow positions.
Another complaint was lodged by dozens of opposition lawmakers.
Both of those cases invoke Article 78 of the Georgian Constitution, which requires officials to “take all measures within the scope of their competences to ensure” Georgia’s integration into the European Union and NATO.
“Georgian Dream stopped the path of integration into the European Union by adopting the Russian law,” Strategy Aghmashenebeli party founder Giorgi Vashadze said of the appeal that he and 37 other lawmakers filed on July 29. “This is an unmistakably proven fact. Therefore, the fact that the constitution of Georgia was violated is an unmistakably proven fact.”
The European Union has paused candidate Georgia’s negotiations toward membership, saying the law is antithetical to the bloc’s core democratic values.
The United States has announced a review of its relations with Tbilisi over the law and comments by Kobakhidze and other Georgian Dream officials since the reintroduction of the law three months ago.
This week, Washington announced the suspension of $95 million in Georgian aid over factors including “anti-democratic actions.” It also signaled the Georgian government had created a new obstacle to its pursuit of NATO and EU membership.
Zurabishvili’s complaint also cites protections including the right of free association, the right to protection from coercion, and privacy, among other things.
A third appeal to the Constitutional Court was filed by 122 media and civil society groups on many of the same grounds.
The law gives the Justice Ministry the power to request personal information about individuals associated with targeted organizations, including details about a person’s political views, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or sex life.
Constitutional Court Chairman Merab Turava said the cases will be adjudicated together.
The nine-member court is expected to take at least a month to review the details of the consolidated case.
Government officials have consistently pushed back against characterizations of the legislation as “Russian” or as designating “foreign agents” despite its potential for a similar stigmatization of groups on the registry to that being felt in Russia.
At his July 33 press conference, Justice Minister Bregadze ignored a question after objecting to the journalist’s “formulation” describing it as the “foreign agent” law.
