Zurab Abashidze, Deputy Chairman of Tbilisi City Municipal Assembly, delivered a speech at the 48th session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which is currently underway in Strasbourg, where a resolution on Georgia is planned to be adopted. In his speech, he emphasized the importance of Georgia’s continued cooperation with Congress but said that it is regrettable when the events in Georgia are viewed from a one-sided perspective in reports. According to him, the Georgian side is surprised by the contradictory content of the resolution.
“For example, the report “On Foreign Interference in Electoral Processes at Local and Regional Level” calls on member states to take measures to stop foreign interference in internal affairs, and at the same time, he highly criticizes recently adopted “Foreign Influence Transparency” law and FARA, which serve the same purpose – protecting the state’s interests from foreign influence. We reckon that our colleague delegates should realize the importance of such legislation for Georgia, 20% of whose territory is occupied by Russia,” said Zurab Abashidze.
The Deputy Chairman of the City Assembly also responded to the criticism expressed in the report towards other legislative initiatives and stated that the Law “On Family Values and Protection of Minors” does not deny the issue of protecting the rights of the LGBTI community and any form of violence and/or discrimination against community members will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
As for the amendments to the Law on Broadcasting, Zurab Abashidze explained that the amendments were made to ensure media impartiality and high standards of journalistic ethics. As Zurab Abashidze stated, institutional mechanisms will be created to monitor and protect these standards.
“These amendments are based on the British model. In our initiatives, we aim to establish standards that apply in advanced democracies. We would also like to note that these amendments respond to the recommendations of Congressional observers after the 2021 elections, which indicated the need to take measures against “hate speech” and “disinformation.”
As for the changes in the electoral legislation in favor of a majoritarian system, these changes were made to ensure the principle of equal representation so that the voice of the local population can be better heard in representative bodies. We look forward to cooperating with the Congressional Election Observation Mission in the framework of the planned local elections. Once again, we would like to emphasize that we will spare no effort to hold free and fair elections, which is based on democratic electoral legislation, as recognized in the OSCE Final Report on the 2024 Parliamentary Elections,” Zurab Abashidze said in his speech.
The 48th session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, currently taking place in Strasbourg, is also attended by Zurab Abashidze, Deputy Head of the Georgian Delegation to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and Deputy Chairman of the Tbilisi City Assembly. Additionally, representatives from the Tbilisi, Senaki, and Ozurgeti City Assemblies—Otar Grigolia, Sevdia Ugrekhelidze, and Tatia Nikolashvili—are participating, along with Irakli Chincharauli, Head of the City Hall Administration of the Tbilisi Municipality.
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