Georgia’s president vetoes controversial ‘foreign agents’ bill
7 months ago

Georgia’s president vetoes controversial ‘foreign agents’ bill

Al Jazeera  

President Salome Zourabichvili says the law is ‘Russian in its essence’, but parliament is expected to overturn veto. Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili has vetoed the “foreign influence” bill that has sparked unprecedented protests in the country and warnings from Brussels that the measure would undermine Tbilisi’s European Union aspirations. The draft law requires non-governmental organisations and media outlets with more than 20 percent of their funding coming from outside Georgia to register as bodies “pursuing the interests of a foreign power”. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze who belongs to the Georgian Dream, has signalled his party’s readiness to consider Zourabichvili’s proposed amendments to the law, should she lay them out in her veto document. Eka Gigauri, head of the Georgian branch of Transparency International, the anticorruption NGO which has operated in the country for 24 years, told France24, “The implication would be that they might freeze our assets.” Critics have argued that the draft law would limit media freedom and jeopardise the country’s bid to join the EU.

History of this topic

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