New York, March 20, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists expresses deep concern after Georgia’s parliament on March 18 approved a second reading of a foreign agent bill that will most likely become law as early as April, creating an existential threat to Georgia’s independent press.
Media groups fear the bill, which ruling party officials call an “exact copy” of the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), will be used more punitively than in the United States, where the law has rarely been applied to media and civil society groups.
“CPJ condemns the Georgian parliament’s approval in a second reading of an ‘exact copy’ of the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act. In the hands of an increasingly authoritarian ruling Georgian Dream party, FARA’s overbroad provisions and criminal sanctions could wipe out Georgia’s donor-reliant independent press and media advocacy groups,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Georgian authorities should reject any form of ‘foreign agent’ law.”
Parliament passed a “word-for-word” translation of FARA in an initial reading on March 4, with the ruling party saying it planned to simply adapt U.S.-specific terminology to Georgia’s legal framework. Besides such adaptations, nothing substantial was amended during the second reading, and substantive revisions cannot be made in a final reading, which is expected by April 4, Lia Chakhunashvili, executive director of independent trade group Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, told CPJ. Georgia President Mikheil Kavelashvili is expected to sign it once it reaches his desk, according to Chakhunashvili.
Officials say a Georgian FARA is necessary because foreign-funded organizations “refuse to register” under the country’s existing foreign agent law, passed in May 2024, and harsher penalties are needed.
The FARA bill includes a maximum penalty of five years in prison for non-compliance and omissions, as well as fines. The existing “foreign agent” law only established fines as punishment, though none appear to have been imposed, Chakhunashvili said.
The switch to FARA would also extend the law’s scope beyond organizations, to individuals, and could be used to require news outlets to label their publications as produced by a foreign agent.
Analysts said the Georgian bill lacks the “legal safeguards and nonpartisan enforcement” that exist in the United States and will enable “swift and severe crackdowns.”
CPJ emailed the Georgian Dream party for comment but did not immediately receive a reply.