Georgian PM says “no alternative to transparency” in democratic society

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Monday said there was “no alternative to transparency in a democratic society”, in comments the ruling party’s resubmission of a bill that calls for registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.

In his remarks, Kobakhidze dismissed criticism of the bill from the domestic opposition - which has branded the bill a “Russian law” in reference to a similar legislative piece in the country - by claiming their position meant saying that “transparency is Russian [approach], while non-transparency is European”.

“In general, we will say that in a democratic society, transparency has [...] no alternative. No one can substantiate why transparency can be bad”, Kobakhidze said.

The only thing that this bill envisages is the annual disclosure of the funds that non-governmental organisations, relevant media have, [but] they claim that transparency is Russian, while non-transparency is European”, the Government head commented.

“Last year, they managed to mislead a significant part of the public, but I am sure they will not be able to do it again the second time”, he continued in reference to the public protests that led to a retraction of the original draft law in 2023.

The PM further claimed activities of domestic non-governmental organisations were “qualitatively non-transparent” and added “the public does not have information about who is funded for what”.

There is a misrepresentation that the Government and Government agencies still have access to information on NGO funding, which is false. We extracted information about seven non-governmental organisations. These are the most powerful non-governmental organisations with [financial] resources. It was found that since 2012 they had disclosed a maximum of 18 percent of the funds they spend. However, we do not have any information about the purpose and specific sources of these funds”, Kobakhidze said.

He added transparency and freedom of speech were “the values that should be decisive in a democracy”, and added the Government would “protect both principles as much as possible”.