Georgian Public Defender calls on Parliament to reject foreign influence transparency bill “in current form”

Levan Ioseliani, the Georgian Public Defender, on Tuesday  called on the Parliament to “achieve the goal of transparency by making changes” to the controversial bill on transparency of foreign influence and reject the draft law “in the current form”.

The Public Defender emphasised “all laws adopted by the Parliament should be in line with the country’s European aspirations and not harm relations” with partners or European integration.

Both the title of the draft law and a number of entries in it are problematic, which can become insulting to subjects of the law. In addition, [it] carries a risk of collecting and disclosing a large amount of personal data about citizens, which creates a basis for violation of the right to privacy”, Ioseliani said.  

He also noted the consideration of the draft law in the Parliament was taking place on the backdrop of “nearly month-long protests” against it.

The legislative piece 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.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili on Sunday said she would veto the controversial legislative piece, however the ruling party has enough votes to override her veto.