thousands of demonstrators gathered to protest against a controversial law targeting media and NGOs

Thousands of people demonstrated on Tuesday March 7 in Georgia against a controversial bill on the “foreign agents”denounced by critics of power as a tool of intimidation against the media and NGOs.

Police used tear gas and water cannons against protesters who had gathered outside parliament after MPs passed the bill at first reading, according to footage from independent Pireli TV. TV. During the largely peaceful rally, at least one protester threw a Molotov cocktail at a cordon of riot police, according to the same source.

A similar text adopted in Russia

The demonstrators were protesting against a law which provides that organizations which receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad must register as“foreign agents”, subject to fines. This text recalls a similar law adopted in Russia in 2012 and which the Kremlin has widely used to repress the media and opposition organizations or simple critical voices.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili spoke on television from New York to say “alongside” Some protestors. “You represent today free Georgia which sees its future in Europe and which will not let anyone steal this future from it”she added, asking that the law be “repealed” and promising to veto it. However, this veto could be overcome by the ruling Georgian Dream party, which controls more than half of the seats in parliament.