Georgia drops ‘foreign agents’ law after protests

Georgia’s ruling party has said it will withdraw a controversial draft law, in the face of mass protests and widespread international criticism.

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Tbilisi this week in anger as a Russian-style law began its passage through parliament.

Under the bill, non-government groups and media would be targeted if they take over 20% of funding from abroad.

The main ruling party said it was pulling the bill “unconditionally”.

Describing itself as a party of government responsible to all members of society, Georgian Dream referred to the need to reduce “confrontation” in society.

Georgia has applied for candidate status of the European Union and sought to join Nato. EU officials had condemned the draft legislation as incompatible with EU values.

In a statement, the EU delegation in Georgia said the move to drop the law was a “welcome announcement” and encouraged political leaders to resume “pro-EU reforms”.

The government’s U-turn followed a second night of clashes between riot police and protesters outside parliament. Tear gas and water cannon were used to disperse the demonstrators as they chanted “no to the Russian law”.

In its statement, Georgian Dream complained that the proposal had been unfairly labelled and said that as the “emotional background subsides” it would explain the importance of the bill and transparency in foreign funding to the public.

Despite the decision to drop the bill, opposition parties said they had no plans to halt the protests. They called for clarity on how the proposals were to be withdrawn and demanded the release of protesters detained this week.

Armaz Akhvlediani, an independent opposition member of parliament and former secretary-general of Georgian Dream, welcomed the party’s promise to withdraw the legislation but said it had “Russian interests” that worked against “democracy and rule of law”.

Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili had earlier condemned the “stir” over the bill. His party maintained that the legislation mimicked American laws from the 1930s, an argument also used by the Kremlin when it passed a similar law in 2012.

Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said Russia had “absolutely nothing” to do with the bill, as he sought to distance his country from the protests.

He said the Kremlin did not inspire the proposal and that the US “pioneered the practice of introducing these laws”.

Mr Peskov also advised Russians living in Georgia to be “extremely careful” and stay away from the street riots.

That Russian law has gradually intensified and now suppresses Western-funded NGOs, independent media, journalists and bloggers, who are required to label their content with the sinister phrase “foreign agent”.

“Again and again they are trying everything to take us far away from the European Union, European values,” said 30-year-old protester Luka Kimeridze.

Eka Gigauri of Transparency

International in Georgia told the BBC that NGOs were already subject to 10 different laws and the finance ministry already had full access to accounts, funding and other information.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili backed the protesters and had vowed to veto the proposal, although ultimately the government would have had the power to override her move.BBC

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Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump and the infighting at Fox News

A $1.6bn defamation lawsuit against Fox News has pulled back the curtain on the inner workings of the powerful conservative cable network in the days after the 2020 US presidential election.

Dominion Voting Systems, a voting-machine manufacturer, alleges that Fox knowingly aired false allegations that their devices helped Joe Biden and the Democrats “steal” the election.

To make their case, the company has called dozens of Fox executives and journalists to testify in depositions and subpoenaed thousands of pages of their text messages and emails.

They show the often heated, and sometimes profane, conversations that took place behind closed doors as Fox News, from chairman Rupert Murdoch on down, grappled with Donald Trump’s ultimately futile attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.

They mocked ‘increasingly mad’ Donald Trump Fox News has had a complicated relationship with Mr Trump over the years. He clashed with the network regularly during the early days of his 2016 presidential bid, but once he won the White House the network’s coverage was largely positive - particularly on its evening opinion shows hosted by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and others.

In the days after his 2020 presidential defeat, however, it’s emerged that many Fox executives and presenters disparaged him.

Mr Murdoch, the Fox News chairman, wrote in an email that the then-US president - and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani - were going “increasingly mad” after election day.

Mr Carlson, host of the network’s toprated programme, said he hated Mr Trump “passionately” and that his presidency had been a disaster. He predicted that soon his show would be able to ignore the soon-to-be former president.

He also mocked the former president’s business enterprises. “All of them fail,” he said in a text to his show’s producer.

It’s the kind of view echoed by Mr Trump’s critics - many who have frequently been the target of Mr Carlson’s ire on his evening programme.

The former president is known to take slights personally and unlikely to forget. It means the love-hate relationship Mr Trump has with Fox News may be veering back toward hate just as the 2024 presidential campaign heats up.