Tbilisi: The Civil Movement namely Shame has been registered as an institute pursuing the interest of a foreign nation under a foreign agent law. The action in this regard came after the decision of the National Agency of Public Registry of the Justice Ministry of Georgia.
Speaking on the development the movement’s executive director Giorgi Mzhavanadze, added “As per the new version of foreign agent law, there is no clear mention of the agent’s status. The Parliament of the Republic of Georgia adopted the law in May this year.”
At the same time the executive director added that due to ambiguity under the new foreign law it does not matter whether the organization receives the agent’s status. On the other hand the officials of the shame movement stressed that they have decided to comply with the registry order to “not lose” existing resources and “not pay” a fine. The fine is provided under the foreign agent law for organizations found violating the terms and conditions of foreign agents law.
This movement was founded in 2019. It emerged from a year-long protest against the ruling party Georgian Dream. Tamar Tkeshelashvili the First Deputy Minister of Justice of Georgia and the curator of the Registry during the session of the Constitutional Court hearings against the foreign agent law submitted on Friday that there are almost 360 organizations have applied for registration on their own without any external pressure.
According to the representative of the Justice Ministry this shows that the law is not a danger to independent media voices. The foreign agent law sometimes also called Russian law has been implemented despite the Georgian President’s veto. As per Georgian law if the President vetoes a law it can be adopted with the order of the speaker.
The Georgian opposition party criticized the law for stifling independent media voices. Civil organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from a foreign country must register as institutes under foreign influence.
