In barrage of legislation, Georgian Dream approves new foreign agent law in its first reading

• 6 min read

▲The Georgian Parliament in session on 4 March 2025. Official photo.

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Georgian Dream has approved a series of legislation and amendments in their first parliamentary hearings, including what the party claims is a Georgian translation of the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) meant to replace the controversial foreign agent law.

On Monday, the ruling party approved several legislative packages and amendments in their first readings, including a copy of the US FARA, changes to the broadcasting law, and amendments that would criminalise treason, abolish the mention of gender in Georgia’s legislation, and exclude civil society organisations from all official decision-making processes.

Georgia’s Parliament is virtually devoid of any opposition representation, barring Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party, which boycotts all of its sessions. In early February, Georgian Dream annulled the mandates of 49 MPs from three opposition groups which had already been boycotting all sessions.

FARA, which would replace the controversial foreign agent law adopted in May 2024, is touted by the ruling party to be an exact translation of the American law. Failure to comply with the law can be punishable by up to five years of imprisonment, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

The current foreign agent law labels any civil society or media organisation that receives at least 20% of its funding from abroad ‘organisations carrying out the interests of a foreign power’. Such organisations must register as foreign agents in a special registry and are subject to monitoring every six months, which lawyers have warned could include forcing them to hand over internal communications and confidential sources.

Organisations that do not comply are only subject to large fines, though as far as OC Media is aware, no organisations have faced any penalties for non-compliance.

‘Just as the American people have the right to protect their sovereignty, the Georgian people have no less a right to strengthen their sovereignty, independence and for the public to know who is transferring the funds and for what activities’, said the chair of parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee, Archil Gorduladze, according to parliament’s website.

The amendments to the broadcasting law would prohibit broadcasters from receiving direct or indirect funding — including money or other material benefits of property value — from ‘a foreign power’.

A number of other changes have also been introduced to the law, which would affect the working style of broadcasters, restricting the expression of a position and forcing broadcasters to notify viewers whether a programme is news-based or opinion-based.

The proposed amendments also state that a person against whom accusations are made on air must be given the opportunity to provide a timely and proper response. The response must be reported fairly and accurately.

In the beginning of February, Parliamentary Speaker Mamuka Mdinaradze announced that amendments would be made to Georgia’s Broadcasting Law, stating that they would make the legislation ‘in line with the British model and legislation’.

The chair of the Human Rights Protection and Civil Integration Committee, Rati Ionamatishvili, said during Monday’s session that Georgia’s ‘democratic institutions, including media, should not be managed from the outside.’

‘When the media is managed from the outside, the agenda, goals and objectives change, which instead of serving to inform the public, serve to create a specific agenda that the “customer” is interested in, which, as a rule, is at odds with the interests of the state’, he said.

The amendments criminalising treason define it as an act that violates Georgia’s territorial integrity, and external security. Other acts defined as treason include joining a foreign intelligence service, violating Georgia’s defence capability, disclosure of state secrets, espionage, conspiracy, or rebellion to change the constitutional order by force, sabotage, and assisting a foreign country or organisation in hostile activities against Georgia.

‘The norm, which is added to the criminal code, consists of only one paragraph, but its significance is much greater for our state’, said Ionatamishvili. ‘It responds to the spirit of our past heroes, when they put loyalty to the homeland above their own lives. It also responds to the needs of our future generations, since protecting the state from treason is the obligation of each of us.’

The abolishment of the word gender would come as part of a legislative package proposed by a group of 19 MPs from Georgian Dream and its satellite party, People’s Power. The proposed amendments aim to modify 16 different laws in Georgia where the term ‘gender’ appears in any form.

During the session on Monday, the Chair of the Procedural Issues and Rules Committee, Davit Matikashvili, claimed that ‘for a certain time, the artificial term “gender” was deliberately introduced into Georgian legislation under foreign influence. This was a kind of reflection of the global processes taking place in the world.’

Matikashvili also said that the draft law abolishes the obligation to establish gender equality councils in parliament, self-governing bodies, and municipalities.

‘The council, whose very name created a false impression about the council's activities, naturally no longer needs to exist today. This does not mean that both the Parliament of Georgia and local self-government bodies should not focus on unwaveringly upholding the principle of equality between women and men’, he said.

The exclusion of civil society organisations from public decision-making processes comes as part of amendments to 14 laws. The legislative package’s explanatory note claims that ‘the participation of non-governmental organisations in the public decision-making process hinders the effective implementation of state governance’.

‘Based on the above, their actions in the public decision-making process are not based on the interests of the local community, but rather they serve the political and economic agenda of external forces’, continued the note.

Matikashvili presented the legislative package during Monday’s session, claiming that the ‘majority’ of civil society organisations were pursuing the interests of foreign countries.

‘The most striking example of this is the so-called USAID scandal, which began in the US after [President] Donald Trump came to power’, he said. ‘It was revealed how not only USAID, but also other funds were financing protests and organising revolutions against democratically elected governments in various countries through non-governmental organisations.’

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Yousef Bardouka •

21 articles•0 Followers

A Circassian from the diaspora, Yousef joined OC Media out of a passion for the Caucasus and a fascination with functional public transport. With previous journalism experience in Jordan, he divides his time between keeping up with regional news, podcast production, and exploration of specialty coffee.