Tbilisi: In a big relief to the ruling party Georgian Dream, the constitutional court of Georgia yesterday refused to suspend the foreign agent law.
Many opposition MPs, the President and many others have filed petitions in the constitutional court to repeal the foreign agent law.
The court while rejecting a request to accept the contention of the petitioner to suspend the implementation of foreign agents’ law, however accepts substantive consideration of some parts of the law.
It is worth noting that in addition to the President, the petition was also filed by the representatives of civil society and media organisations and two journalists.
The court in its order specifically mentioned that the petitions miserably failed to prove the allegation contained in the petitions.
Moreover the court observed that there is no evidence suggesting that the foreign agent law creates any kind of hindrance for Georgia in its journey towards the European Union.
After the decision of the court there were a different reaction from opponents of foreign agent’s law. Nona Kurdovanidze, the chairman of GYLA Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) added “The constitution court was expected to act as per its full powers unfortunately it failed to detect the fault of foreign agents law.
However, our fight against the suppressive provision of the law will also continue in the future.”
Similarly, Nino Dolidze from ( ISFED ) International Society for Fair Elections And Democracy, says it is unfortunate that the court has missed a golden opportunity to make any significant contribution to the protection of the rights of civil organisations. We will continue our fight against Russian law to safeguard independent media voices”.
Tamar Kordia another leader from the coalition of the opposition parties said that it seemed that Georgian courts are also following the path taken by courts in Russia.
Now we have to fight jointly to uphold Georgia’s democratic values. He also called all opponents of foreign agent law to streamline their fight to ensure independent media voices.
