(14 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tbilisi, Georgia – 14 May 2024
1. Various of protesters and police
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Helene Khoshtaria, opposition lawmaker:
"Basically, the fight that is going on in the heart of Tbilisi is now not just against the Russian law but it is against an attempt by the Russian oligarch (Bidzina Ivanishvili) to capture the whole country and bring it back under Russian influence. He announced that the U.S. and the EU, the biggest supporters of Georgian sovereignty, are basically the enemies of this country, which is against the will of the overwhelming majority of Georgian people. That’s why we will not surrender; we will not give up. We will fight as long as it takes. Basically, it will be Ivanishvili who will have to leave, but not our independence and freedom."
3. Ambulance driving through protest
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Giorgi Vashadze, opposition lawmaker:
"We are fighting for our country, for the European perspective of Georgia. I am more than sure that we will win this battle. (There is) No chance that Bidzina Ivanishvili will establish an authoritarian regime here. (The) entire world hears the Georgian voice, the voice of these young people who have stood here for one month throughout this protest. I think that the Georgian Dream ruling party is completely out the constitution, out of the law, and they are betraying our country’s European future."
5. Various of protesters and police near Georgian parliament building
6. Wide of police leaving premises
STORYLINE:
Protests continued after Georgian lawmakers on Tuesday approved a “foreign influence” bill that sparked weeks of mass protests, with critics seeing it as a Russian-style threat to free speech and the country’s aspirations to join the European Union.
After the 84-30 vote, a crowd of protesters in front of parliament tried to break metal barriers near the building, and some reportedly were detained by police.
The bill requires media and nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofit groups to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.
The government says the bill is needed to stem what it deems as harmful foreign actors trying to destabilize politics in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million people.
The opposition has denounced the bill as “the Russian law,” because Moscow uses similar legislation to crack down on independent news media, nonprofits and activists critical of the Kremlin.
"We will not surrender; we will not give up. We will fight as long as it takes," Helene Khoshtaria, an opposition lawmaker said.
The bill is nearly identical to one that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw last year after street protests.
Renewed demonstrations have rocked Georgia for weeks, with demonstrators scuffling with police, who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them.
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