Georgia, protests outside Parliament after the ok to the law on “foreign agents”: clashes with the police, water cannons and sprays used

Il Georgian Parliament approved in the first reading the two drafts of the bill which aims to introduce new rules for the control of so-called ‘foreign agents’mainly designed for i media. The law, supported by the ruling party Georgian dreamfollows the one already in force in Russia and is seen from oppositions as an attempt to put the information gag. It’s at Tbilisi have occurred fights among the demonstrators – publicly supported by the president Salome Zurabishvili – and the police who protected the seat of parliament in riot gear and raising barricades at the entrances.

The police it was immediately deployed as soon as the bills were passed. In fact, outside the parliament, thousands of people gathered to protest against the law and attempted abreaking into the building. They were used on them tear gas, water cannons e spray. The US Embassy called these events “a black day for the democracy Georgian”. The proposal to adopt a law on ‘foreign agents’ also in Georgia was presented by the pro-government party Power of the People and met with protests from non-governmental organizations and media. The law provides that non-commercial companies they receive over 20% of their own funding from foreign sources are precisely registered as foreign agents, with possible limitations to their activities.

The bill will now be sent to Venice Commission of the European Council for an opinion. Subsequently, these bills will be heard and possibly passed in second and third readings by the Georgian parliament, according to reports from Interfax. The president of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvilifrom New York where she is currently visiting, addressed the participants in the protests and expressed to them – as she reports Ukrainska Pravda – his own support: “I am addressing you who represent the Free Georgia. Georgia seeing hers future in Europe and she will not allow anyone to deprive her of this future”, underlined the president, specifying that her country does not need the bill on “foreign agents” and promising to put the veto. However, the parliament in Tbilisi has the option of override the veto presidential election, as it did last year on the so-called law on eavesdroppingwhich had been criticized by the European Union and human rights activists.