Crackdown on pro-EU protests against ‘foreign agents’ bill in Georgia | DW News

Crackdown on pro-EU protests against ‘foreign agents’ bill in Georgia | DW News

to Georgia and lawmakers have approved a second reading of a controversial foreign agents law this requires a media and civil groups that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as being under foreign influence protesters confronted police outside parliament in the capital toi they say the bill would restrict basic freedoms and is similar to a law being used the silence government critics in Russia large protests against the legislation have become regular occurrence in the country our correspondent Maria katam matza joins us from toi or welcome Maria what’s happening there [Applause] [Music] now protesters are still coming to the parliament Square we can see families uh people with loved ones coming here and waving European and Georgian Flags uh they feel uh very disappointed by the uh ruling parties uh by the parliament’s decision to adopt the law uh the the bill in the second hearing uh but people say that they’re going to protest further uh at this point the right police left uh left the uh the area uh after recating MPS from the Parliament building before the Parliament building was in circled essentially by the protesters they were demanding to meet those NPS who uh voted in favor of the bill uh lots of disappointment lots of anger and uncertainty about their future they say that they’re they’re very worried how their future in Europe is going to look like uh some say that uh this foreign agent bill is going to uh make them now friends with Russia that’s what we heard from some of the protesters and uh yes at this point it’s still uh a developing picture here in Georgia because the bill to in order to become a law it has to be adopted in the third final hearing okay so now that it it has been approved twice of those three uh times uh is there any way that protesters can still stop [Music] [Applause] it well as we have seen the mass protest didn’t stop the government from adopting the bill in the first two hearings so it’s quite unlikely that the mass protest or the international pressure for instance will push the government to U uh to drop the bill as they did last year for instance um we can see that the the rising anti-western rhetoric uh towards the Brussel Georgian government says that they can act independently uh without looking at what says Washington or Brussels they also said that it was essential for Georgia to have transparent funding from the overseas but critics say that it’s actually the bill uh would be used to crack down on desand to limit opposition capabilities to silence the oppositional media as well just right before the elections in October 2024 and that election actually can make a difference uh when we talk when we discuss about when we discuss this bill because uh the opposition says that if it comes to the power they will retri this bill so if the uh for the elections next election are party the will stay all right we’re having a couple of technical diff we’ll try another question and and and see if we can get past this these technical difficulties um Maria could you please explain to us why this legislation is so concerning to people there well it’s important to to actually look at this bill in the context of the relationships between Russia and Georgia they fought a war in 2008 and Russian troops are still uh in Georgia’s Breakaway regions of South Atia and abazia so everything that is could be seen as Russia related uh is very is taken very uh cautiously and very sensitively here by the Georgians uh more than 80% of Georgians want to be part of Europe and they think in order to be uh a country in the EU and prosperous country they need to drift away as much as possible from Russia that’s what the protesters are telling me here at the square Let’s cross over now to William Courtney in Washington he’s an adjunct senior fellow at the Rand Think Tank and also served as U US ambassador to Georgia so Mr Courtney do you think that these protesters have a chance of moving the government to reject this bill it is probably too late to reject the bill because the government is planning to do a third and final read reading very soon but the protests may have a wider effect in Georgia clearly uh the vast number of Georgians want to go west they want to go to Europe the government though is hijacking uh its power and trying to take uh Georgia closer to Russia this foreign agents law which has been one of Vladimir Putin’s most powerful tools of Oppression in Russia now could be used by the uh government to do the same thing in Georgia that’s a step very far back and of course this is not the first time Georgia’s ruling party has introduced this bill why are they pushing it again this year if it was already been defeated once it’s consistent uh with the direction that Georgian leadership wants to take the government and they need to find a way in their conception to repress Civil Society organizations that have foreign uh ties and almost all Civil Society organizations in Georgia have foreign ties of one sort or another uh so the government sees this is essential to turning the government into a more authoritarian regime but we do have a rather unique situation where Georgian president zor zor vili has has been highly critical of the bill and vowed to veto it if it passes so does that mean that the ruling party could still box it through even if she does uh put in her veto uh yes the Parliamentary speaker with enough votes uh could override her veto uh so she she is doing the right thing but she doesn’t have enough power to to stop it all together so in some sense what we’re seeing now in Georgia is a second what it’s called color Revolution you know Ukraine had two color revolutions the orange Revolution uh in 2005 and then the maidan revolution in 2014 for these countries coming out of communist rule maybe it takes a couple um popular Revolutions in order to uh and these are peaceful revolutions uh to change politics Georgia looks like it’s in the same situation now he had had one over a decade ago and now it looks like it could be on the the cusp of another Revolution that might uh make Georgia a different kind of U government well that’s something that the EU Chief URS ferline would definitely agree with she condemned police violence and said that Georgia is at a Crossroads now uh would you agree with that and if so do we see any indication which side is actually going to win uh she is absolutely correct uh it’s too hard to tell typically in popular revolutions some part of the security apparatus has to lose uh faith in the existing Rule and go over to the other side the side of the popular uh demonstrators that hasn’t happened yet in Georgia uh but that has been something that’s happened and some of the other color revolutions uh so we don’t yet see this happening uh but it could happen any time and we just can’t predict we can now talk to Rachel Denver deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch she joins us from New York so Rachel help us walk through this why are so many Georgians taking to the streets and why are we seeing such a harsh Crackdown Georgians are taking to the streets in Mass numbers unprecedented numbers these are numbers that we have never seen before uh out on the streets in Georgia because this law aims to take Georgia back several decades in terms of freedom of expression freedom and freedom of Association it wants to the government is int has made clear that the intent is to turn away from uh from its uh you know growing uh uh integration with the European Union it aims to turn away from the West generally it is using uh doing this under the pretext of uh this uh this law uh that claims that it’s about the law claims that it’s about transparency of uh of of um the funding for for for uh Nos and media and the like it’s not about transparency where Nos and media in Georgia get their funding is very clear anyone can find that out this law is about smearing stigmatizing and demonizing organizations that are independent and that might be critical of the government and everybody knows that the government has pretty much made clear that that it’s aware of this and the government has made clear that intends to use this law to silence and punish its critics so then you would agree with the assessment as the protesters have said that this bill would have a similar effect to a Russian law which is often used to silence critics of the government do you agree with that assessment I think that the there there are some differences between the Georgian foreign agent law and the Russian foreign agent law well the Georgian law is not called foreign agent they call it foreign influence but it’s the same idea and it’s it’s been brought out with the same with absolutely the same purpose so yeah I think I think that the government the government has made very clear that this law is only the first and and and what will be a number of steps to silence its critics um uh the the behind the scenes political leader Ian has made that very clear in his speech the Prime Minister made that also made that very clear in his speech they intend this to use this law to silence what they call bad projects and uh and you know and NOS that they don’t like now we’ve already seen this bill being withdrawn once do you think there’s any chance that the protesters can get their way and actually stop it being uh heard by Parliament again well the government seems very determined to push this law through we can hope that it will that it will get the message that this law will um will almost certainly derail Georgia’s European integration Georgia’s European integration is something that the vast majority of Georgians wants 90% in in in public polling show that Georgians want Georgia to continue towards European integration towards becoming a remaining a candidate country for EU status this law would know unquestionably would derail that so you know one can hope that the government will come to its census but um it seems quite determined so I think that we are in for some rocky days ahead yes well if those pictures we were seeing just now um are anything to judge by we definitely are that was Rachel Denver from humans rights watch thank you very much for your assessment thank you

Lawmakers in Georgia have approved a second reading of a controversial ‘foreign agents’ bill. It requires media and civil groups that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as being under foreign influence.

Protesters are currently facing off against police outside parliament in the capital Tbilisi. They say the bill would restrict basic freedoms and is similar to a law being used to silence government critics in Russia. Large protests against the legislation have become a regular occurrence in Georgia.

Chapters:

00:00 Crackdown on protests
00:34 Maria Katamadze. DW correspondent in Tbilisi
04:36 William Courtney, Former US Ambassador to Georgia
08:08 Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch

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