Georgia: the Parliament approves a censorship bill
On 17 September, Georgia’s Parliament adopted a legislative package entitled “Family Values and the Protection of Minors.” Among the amendments contrary to press freedom and freedom of expression, the legislation imposes censorship on media by banning broadcasters from freely reporting on LGBT+ issues.
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) strongly condemns Georgia’s draft law, which aims to seriously endanger the non-discrimination rights of the LGBT+ community in Georgia by censoring broadcasters on topics of the utmost importance. The EFJ calls on the Georgian government to immediately reconsider such a repressive and discriminatory bill and instead uphold freedom of the press and freedom of expression as cornerstones of democracy.
The Bill, initially introduced by Speaker of Parliament Shalva Papuashvili on 4 June 2024, was voted on by a half-emptied Parliament in its third reading. The bill is part of the legislative package “on Family Values and Protection of Minors” which proposes amendments to various legislative acts, such as the law on broadcasting. One of the repressive measures bans any mention of LGBT+ in education and in broadcasting programs.
Under Article 8, broadcasters are forbidden to ”promote identification with a gender other than one’s biological sex or relationships between individuals of the same biological sex based on sexual orientation.” In a nutshell, broadcasters and educational institutions are both prohibited to depict and mention same-sex relationships, which is an act of censorship. Plus, in case these rules are disrespected, the accused will have to pay a fine of up to €1,050. Such mechanisms can only have the effect of self-censorship among media workers.
EFJ’s Georgian affiliate, the Independent Association of Georgian Journalists (IAGJ), expressed its concern: “The IAGJ regrets that the legislative package on “family values and protection of minors” has been passed without due public consultations and a thorough analysis of its compliance with European and international standards. This law gives the green light to raising homophobic groups in Georgia, which conducted several organised attacks on LGBT groups and their supporters. IAGJ is concerned that the law was introduced soon after the anti-NGO law on Foreign Agents came into force,” reacted IAGJ chairperson Zviad Pochkua.
Before it passes, the law must be approved by President Salome Zurabishvili. In the event she vetoes it, as many Georgian civil society organisations call for, it can still be approved by the Parliament’s speaker, Shalva Papuashvili, who co-sponsored the bill.
“Such a bill is clearly inspired by the increasingly authoritarian attitude of the ruling party in Georgia, the Georgian Dream. This is most obvious with the Foreign Agents Bill, which requires organisations that receive a certain amount of foreign funding to register as foreign agents. Now the media is being directly affected by this new law, which we consider to be contrary to the Georgian Constitution. The situation is much worse than I imagined and I am extremely concerned about the consequences of this Kremlin-inspired legal framework for Georgian journalists,” said EFJ Secretary General Ricardo Gutiérrez from Tbilisi where he is taking part in a two-day mission to assess the media environment in Georgia, particularly in the run-up to the upcoming elections.
The mission is organised by the Partner Organisations of the Council of Europe Media Freedom and the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) Platform which also strongly condemned the repressive bill, and called on the Georgian Dream government to immediately halt its ongoing attacks on human rights, including freedom of the press and expression.
