The US Department of State criticizes the draft law initiated in the Georgian Parliament, which includes the creation of a foreign influence agents list in the country. State Department spokesperson Ned Price denies that the draft law is similar to American legislation. “In fact, this draft legislation appears to be based on similar Russian and Hungarian legislation, not on FARA or any other American legislation,” said Ned Price at the briefing in Washington.
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“We’ve expressed those deep concerns directly to our interlocutors in the Government of Georgia. The proposed law would stigmatize and silence independent voices and citizens of Georgia who are dedicated to building a better future for their own communities. We believe such a law could potentially undermine Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration”, according to Price, the United States is deeply concerned about the consequences that this law may bring to freedom of speech and democracy in Georgia.
Members of the parliamentary majority, who formally left the ruling Georgian Dream party and created the “People's Power” movement, initiated the draft law “On the transparency of foreign influence” in the parliament. According to the draft law, for ensuring transparency of foreign influences, a register of foreign-influenced agents, whose income is more than 20% financed by “foreign powers”, will be created.
The draft law considers “agents of foreign influence” to be:
All non-entrepreneurial (non-commercial) legal entities, and non-governmental organizations, whose annual income, more than 20%, is from foreign funding. When receiving such funding, state organizations or sports federations based on Georgian legislation are not declared as "agents of foreign influence";
TV stations with more than 20% of their income from “foreign power”.
Mass media, including newspapers and online media, with more than 20% of their revenue from “foreign powers”. In the case of media outlets, this does not include advertising.
Non-governmental and media organizations will be registered as “agents of foreign influence” by the National Agency of Public Registry. Administrative fines will be imposed on entities that avoid registration. Fine payment will not release the subject from the obligation to register as an “agent of foreign influence”.
According to “People's Power” members' draft law “On transparency of foreign influence” includes the best practices of democratic countries and is mainly drawn up according to the relevant USA legislation.
Preparation of this draft law by “People's Power” was preceded by the statement of Irakli Kobakhidze, the GD chairman, that the financing of large NGOs is not transparent. “There are some of the wealthiest NGOs that are funded from different sources. When they come out with political demands and show political ambition, even more so, they have a moral obligation to show a high degree of transparency to the public, however, we see that their expenses are completely nontransparent and the public does not have any information about it, which creates risks. Our country is a small state and is naturally vulnerable to various risks,” Kobakhidze said at the press conference held on September 13, 2022.
After initiating the draft law, Kobakhidze said that he does not see a problem in labeling organizations as agents of foreign influence, because it is different from espionage and involves the channeling of specific interests. According to him, the public should have information about who finances the non-governmental sector and the media (this information is already publicly published on the websites in the case of most organizations).
“If we consider political parties, we submit a declaration to the audit service every year, and every penny spent by the party, whatever income we have is known to the public. This is not punishment, isn’t it?
Ask any citizen and no one will be able to tell you who actually funds them. We are not only talking about TV broadcasters, we are talking about other broadcasters, we are talking about web publications, online and print media, we are talking about everything.
As for the term itself, I don't know, there might be another match that expresses the same summary, but the term agent does not mean a spy. If you look at the Georgian Legislation espionage is punishable. Such a term as agency activity is not used. Espionage is punishable, espionage is something else, and being an agent of someone and something is something else.
An agent means that you are a carrier of someone's interest, not a spy. There may be another term, but really, you can't pick on this term. Because the agent exists. An insurance agent exists to convince you to sign a specific contract with an insurance agency. There is an agent in the bank and there are agents in all areas. The agency is called the National Public Registry Agency and it does not mean that it works for agents. This is actually an accepted term and it means a conductor of interests,” said Kobakhidze while being on air at TV “Rustavi 2”.
