Search results : 23

Following a failure to adopt the bill "On transparency of foreign influence" in March 2023 (see IRIS 2023-4:1/30 ), on 14 May 2024, the Parliament of Georgia adopted, in the third and final reading, a slightly amended version of the draft law tabled by the ruling party “Georgian Dream” and supported by the Government. The draft replaced the term “agent of foreign influence” with “organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power.” All other parts of the draft law remain unchanged. One of the four categories of such organisations, according to the...

The Parliament of Georgia has adopted amendments in the 2005 broadcasting law (see: IRIS 2013-8:1/23) that would soon change the method of funding the country's national and regional public broadcasters. Currently, the law stipulates that Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) is to obtain at least 0.14% of the national GDP. With the dramatic growth of the Georgian GDP since 2022, the funding for GPB has jumped from GEL 69.6 million in 2021 to 110.3 million (or EUR 38.2 million) in 2024. The note to the bill explained the proposed change by saying that the current increase has not been conditioned...

On 22 December 2022, the national Parliament of Georgia adopted a draft law “On amendments to the law on broadcasting”. The 2004 law has been amended several times (see IRIS 2005-7/24, IRIS 2011-10:1/22, IRIS 2013-8:1/23); this time the amendments were aimed at achieving compliance of the Georgian legislation with the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). Most of the amendments relate to the definitions of the key notions of the law, including the activity of the audiovisual (AV) media regulatory authority, the “authorisation” procedures for activities in the...

On 14 February 2023, the “People’s Power” movement, an offshoot of the “Georgian Dream” ruling party, submitted a draft law “on the transparency of foreign influence”. According to the bill, a register of foreign-influenced agents would be created by the Ministry of Justice, which would “monitor” the activity of such agents. Liability for a failure to register or present relevant declarations would entail a fine of 25,000 Lari (about EUR 8 900). Article 2 of the draft law considered that “agents of foreign influence”...

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found a violation of the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), on account of the administrative‑offence proceedings and the resulting sanctions for disseminating images on social media and on the packaging of condoms deemed by the domestic courts in Georgia to be unethical advertising. The ECtHR found no demonstration of the existence of a pressing social need to interfere with the advertising and it considered the prioritisation of views on ethics of the members of the Georgian Orthodox Church...