A prominent Non-governmental organization, USAID Rule of Law Program of Georgia hosted an important meeting. The main theme of the meeting was to discuss freedom of speech and its various aspects.
The NGO took to its social media pages to share this information. The official Facebook post of the NGO stated “ Our first meeting in Akhaltsikhe with Conversations on free words and freedom of speech was successful. We are glad that young people, lawyers, journalists, and representatives of business, medical, and civil society organizations had the opportunity to meet with writer Davit Gorgiladze and lawyer Zviad Kordzadze.”
It further added that Participants of meeting discuss the importance of freedom of speech, opinion and expression and also share their own experiences with each other. It is worth to mention the meeting is also important as the country has adopted the foreign agent’s law. The opposition parties accused the government of suppressing the independent media voices with the implementation of foreign agents’ laws.
The meeting attendees discussed how foreign agent law can bring transparency in foreign funding. They shared ideas on the allegation of opponents of the law who say this will stifle independent media voices. The foreign agent law also known as transparency law was adopted by the Georgian parliament overriding the President’s veto. After the veto of the President the Speaker of Parliament gave the assent as per the provision of Georgian law. The meeting attendees stated that it is the responsibility of the central government to ensure the protection of people’s rights.
They further urged the government to remove the doubts surrounding the foreign agent’s law to ensure public trust in the process. A significant number of attendees attended the meeting and shared their views. The key speakers of the event, writer Davit Gorgiladze, and lawyer Zviad Kordzadze said that the youth has a great responsibility to ensure that the government does not commit any action that violates people’s rights.
Meanwhile social media users reacting to an NGO’s Facebook post appreciated the initiative. They also praised the efforts of the organizers who are working to raise awareness of people’s rights.
