Georgian Dream warned about the seizure of NGO and media accounts for disobeying the law on foreign agents
Kyiv • UNN
The Georgian authorities have announced a possible seizure of the accounts of NGOs and media outlets that refuse to register as "foreign agents" under a new law requiring the declaration of foreign funding in the amount of more than 20% of income, despite fears of being branded and facing restrictions, as in Russia.
Georgian Dream Secretary General Kakha Kaladze announced the possible seizure of the accounts of those NGOs and media outlets that refuse to comply with the law on foreign agents ("on transparency of foreign influence"), Reports UNN with reference to "News Georgia".
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In Georgia, a number of organizations have previously stated that they will not register in the Register of foreign agents.
Kaladze said that they face financial sanctions, after which the accounts will be seized and the organizations will not be able to work.
According to him, he does not understand the refusal of registration if the organization has nothing to hide.
"If you are doing a good deed and do not have evil intentions, what is the problem with filling out a declaration and showing your finances? Where do you get your income from and what specific projects are funded? However, there is doubt that this money was used to finance polarizing and revolutionary scenarios, and all this happened because of this opacity," Kaladze said.
Those who refuse to register in the Register say that they are against being labeled as a foreign agent, as has already happened in Russia.
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The publication notes that local NGOs and mass media will have to register in a special register on the basis of only one criterion: upon foreign financing, more than 20% of income. It doesn't matter what the organization does – election monitoring, environmental care, bird watching, or helping orphans. All of them will receive registration in a special register and the brand "organization that conducts the interests of a foreign force".
And fears are compounded by the fact that without waiting for the law to come into force, the Georgian authorities are already calling organizations that received grants from the United States and the EU "liberal fascists" and "traitors" who are preparing a "revolution".
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that active opponents of the law on foreign agents are leaders of the ideology of "Liberal Fascism".
Georgian parliament speaker signs law on "foreign agents"Jun 3 2024, 07:35 AM • 22574 views
He said today that the law has come into force and called on those who protest "to separate themselves from this ideology of Liberal Fascism, which is as dangerous as classical fascism and Bolshevism.
