Thousands pack centre of Georgian capital to denounce 'foreign agent' law

(17 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tbilisi, Georgia - 17 April 2024
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Protesters on motorcycles arriving at the rally
2. Rally in front of the Parliament building
3. Various of people waving EU and Georgian flags
4 Speaker addressing crowd
5. Protesters applauding
6. Protesters holding banners
7. SOUNDBITE (Georgian) Aleksandre Ellisashvili, member of Parliament:
"It is a fact that today Georigan Dream has conducted a referendum in the Parliament and unilaterally decided to bring Georgia into Russia. Those 83 traitors decided that Georgia should become a part of Russia's governorate. The rest of Georgia will explain to them a very simple thing that is written in our Consitution. The Consitution says that people hold the power, and not the traitorous government. This is what we will explain today. There should be no Russian law, and no Russian government should be in power."
8. Man holding banner reading (English): "Fight for freedom"
9. Various of protesters
STORYLINE:
Thousands gathered in Georgia's capital Tbilisi on Wednesday evening to denounce a divisive new bill dubbed the foreign agent law.

Georgia’s parliament on Wednesday voted in the first reading to approve the proposed law, which would require media and non-commercial organizations to register as being under foreign influence if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.

The opposition did not participate in Wednesday's vote.

Eighty-three deputies from the ruling Georgian Dream party voted in favour of the law.

Opponents of the measure denounce it as “the Russian law” because of similar legislation used by Moscow to stigmatize independent news media and organizations seen as being at odds with the Kremlin.

The bill is nearly identical to a proposal that the governing party was pressured to withdraw last year after large street protests.

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