VIDEO. Georgia: violent clashes during a demonstration against a law targeting media and NGOs
Georgian police arrested at least 66 people during protests in the capital Tbilisi on Tuesday against a controversial law targeting the media and NGOs, authorities in the Caucasus country said on Wednesday. “Nearly 50 policemen” were injured during these protests, dispersed with tear gas and water cannons, the Georgian Interior Ministry added in a statement.
The ministry said that “violent incidents” had taken place during these demonstrations, near the Georgian Parliament, and specified that “civilians” had also been injured, without specifying the number. According to this source, protesters threw stones and “Molotov ****tails” at the police.
Demonstrators were protesting against a bill that would require Georgian organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents” or face fines.
This text recalls a similar law adopted in Russia in 2012 and which the Kremlin uses to repress the media and opposition organizations or simple critical voices, considered as “foreign agents”.
Georgia, a small ex-Soviet republic in the Caucasus, has ambitions to join the EU and NATO, but several government moves have recently cast a shadow over those aspirations and raised doubts about its ties to the Kremlin.
