Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center offers an overview of the report published by the United States Department of State on June 10 about freedom of religion in Georgia. “While describing a common legal status, it is emphasized in the report that in Georgia the freedom of religion is guaranteed and persecution on religious grounds is prohibited by the Constitution. At the same time, it is noted that the Constitution of Georgia recognizes the special role of the Georgian Orthodox Church and the relationship between the state and the Church is regulated on the basis of the Concordat. It is stated in the report that the Concordat gives the dominant religious organization such privileges that other organizations do not have”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

According to European Commission’s report the coronavirus pandemic has been accompanied by a massive wave of false and misleading information, attempts by foreign actors to influence domestic debates in the EU, breeding on the fertile ground of people’s most basic anxieties and the rapidly changing news cycle.  Misleading healthcare information, dangerous hoaxes with false claims conspiracy theories and consumer fraud endanger public health. False or misleading information around coronavirus can damage societal cohesion, but above all, it is a threat to public health. False or misleading narratives come in different forms that require different responses. •content may not be illegal as defined by law, but still harmful •it can range from disinformation (defined as intentional) to misinformation •it can include misleading healthcare information, consumer fraud, cyber-crime, illegal hate speech as well as targeted influence operations by foreign actors. •the motivation behind it can range from economic gain (online scams) causing public harm, to political purposes •foreign actors and certain third countries, in particular Russia and China, have engaged in targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns in the EU, its neighbourhood, and globally. False claims such as ‘drinking bleach or pure alcohol can cure the coronavirus infections’: on the contrary, drinking bleach or pure alcohol can be very harmful. Belgium’s Poison Control Centre has recorded an increase of 15% in the number of bleach-related incidents. Conspiracy theories, such as the claim that coronavirus is 'an infection caused by the world’s elites for reducing population growth'. The scientific evidence is clear: the virus comes from a family of viruses originating in animals that include other viruses such as SARS and MERS. Claims that '5G installations would be spreading the virus'. These theories had no specific substantiation and led to attacks on masts. The EU needs to empower citizens, raise awareness and increase societal resilience. The EU will share best practices on resilience-building measures in the coronavirus context. The Commission will support and promote media literacy projects, critical thinking and digital skills, as well as civil society organisations. It will strengthen coordination among institutions, networks and Member States to share awareness-raising material and best practices. The Commission will pay particular attention to vulnerable groups, in particular children and young people, who face a higher risk of being misled. Read more… Source: ec.europa.eu

Tbilisi. By the order of Transparency International Georgia, Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC) conducted a public opinion survey during the period from February 27 to March 18, 2020. “Within the framework of the survey 1763 people have been inquired across the country. The average discrepancy of the survey is 2.2%. Minor corruption is still rare in Georgia, however, more complex forms of corruption and investigation of corruption cases involving high-ranking officials remain a challenge”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), together with the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), publishes a shadow report – “Status of implementation of the strategy and action plan of the judicial system”.  “The monitoring report has revealed that the High Council of Justice does not pay proper attention to complete implementation of the strategy and action plan, and often specific activities are carried out just technically, while their substantive result, qualitative improvement of justice, remains beyond the interest of agencies responsible for implementation of the action plan”, - is stated on the website of the organization.  Read more…  Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia considers that amendments to the rules of procedure of the Parliament deteriorate legal status of the opposition. “Members of the majority presented draft amendments to the rules of procedure to the Parliament on June 1. The analysis contains important novelties envisaged by the draft, which deteriorate legal status of the opposition. More specifically: Members of Parliament, elected as nominees of various political parties and/or electoral blocs, will no longer be able to form a common faction; during political debates, the majority faction will have its time to give a speech increased, while small factions and independent Members of Parliament will have it shortened; to fill its quota, the opposition will no longer be able to approve a member of the Prosecutorial Council independently, without the support of the majority”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a study that contains a review of lobbying activities of Georgia in 2015-2020 years. The review includes analysis of concluded agreements and information regarding actual cash transfers made from Georgia. Read more… Source:idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Within the scopes of the project “Global Facility on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (GF-AML/CFT)” launched by European Commission, the training on “FATF Recommendation 8 for NPOs” will be held for the representatives of non-governmental organizations. “The training course will raise the awareness of the participants on preventive activities executed in the non-governmental sector in relation to the AML/CFT. Following non-governmental organizations are taking part in the training course: Civil Society Institute; Media Development Foundation; Europe Foundation; Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (Rondeli Foundation); Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC); Transparency International – Georgia; Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC); Civil Development Agency (CiDA); International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED); Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA). Training course is held from June 1 to June 5, at 19:00-20:00 with using the Zoom platform. The organization of the training course in Georgia is supported by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI)”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association submitted its views regarding the package of amendments to the Labor Code, initiated by members of parliament, to Healthcare and Human Rights Committees of the Parliament of Georgia. “Despite the fact that the amendments to the “Labor Code” and the bill of Georgia on “Labor Inspection” increase guarantees for legal protection of those employed, GYLA considered it necessary to submit additional comments to the Parliament of Georgia in order to facilitate improvement of the bill and elimination of existing shortcomings”. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) and the Media Development Foundation (MDF) consider that the Parliament should not support a bill on Information Security. “With its content and proposed regulations, the bill contradicts regulations of the EU, obligations under the Association Agreement and requirements of GDPR in terms of procedures related to personal data processing. During drafting the bill there was not ensured compliance with mentioned regulations and so far no measures have been taken in this regard. “Respectively, the “Law of Georgia on Information Security” requires to be revised and amended, especially in the field of refinement of execution mechanisms”, - is noted in the joint statement. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Due to the Transparency International Georgia GEL 40 Million Being Spent Without Tenders through Village Support Programme. “The Village Support Programme has set a dangerous precedent of a blanket authorization of simplified procurement being issued for multiple procurements. In addition to contradicting the requirements of the law, this also directly contradicts the State Procurement Agency's publicly declared goal of reducing the share of simplified procurement in public procurement. The steps taken toward this goal have yielded impressive results in recent years: The share of simplified procurement in public procurement fell from 37% to 19% between 2016 and 2018. In this context, it is not clear why the State Procurement Agency has issued blanket authorization to spend all of the Village Support Programme's funds through simplified procurement”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. According to information released by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), on August 2, 2018, the Georgian National Communications Commission established a N(N)LE “Mediaacademia”, the purpose of activity of which is to promote development of media literacy in Georgia. As the blog post states, the organization requested various types of information from “Mediaacademia”, however, IDFI got refused to receive information. There was submitted a complaint at the National Communications Commission against this decision, but the commission refused to conduct a thorough review of it. “IDFI filed a lawsuit in the Tbilisi City Court in order to protect its rights and inform public. IDFI hopes that the court will take a decision in compliance with law, confirm that “Mediaacademia” is an administrative body and oblige it to release public information”, - is noted on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) published a blogpost "Measures taken against COVID-19 - International practice ": “In response to spread of the new coronavirus, governments of various countries apply a wide range of measures. A research team of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford has developed a special mechanism to evaluate taken measures - The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), which evaluates and compares measures taken by governments of different countries to stop the coronavirus, while eventually defines the Austerity Index. The table contains examples of 22 countries in total, including Georgia. According to data, it is obvious that gradual mitigation of measures taken in March in response to spread of the coronavirus begins in the second half of April in each of them. Taking into account the number and severity of imposed restrictions, as well as penalties determined for violating them, Georgia comes close to countries having strict measures. The very first violation of the special regime of the state of emergency by an individual results in a fine of GEL 3000, which exceeds the amount of fines imposed by Western European, Scandinavian and other developed countries and is disproportionately high in relation to income of population”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a blog post: Quality of democracy in Georgia according to the BTI 2020. “BTI is the only comparative-international index, which measures the quality of governance and offers an analysis of political governance in countries that are in transition period. In 2020, 137 countries were evaluated by this index. Georgia was one of the evaluated countries, as it belongs to the category of developing countries. Thus, it is interesting to know how the transformation process is going on in the country according to the 2020 Index. In the report, Georgia was evaluated in all three directions, however the purpose of this study is only to analyze the degree of democracy. Unfortunately, according to the Bertelsmann Transformation Index, the quality of democracy in Georgia deteriorated in several directions in 2020 as compared to 2018”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy publishes a blogpost: Russian information operation on Facebook encouriging political polarization in Georgia and inauthentic accounts involved in it. “On April 30, 2020 Facebook removed from its platform Kremlin’s propagandistic information agency News-Front’s pages in Georgian and other languages that they used in various countries. As part of its social media monitoring, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) was studying News-Front Georgia and Facebook accounts connected to it since November, 2019. News-Front is a Kremlist information agent that operates in Georgia and was actively using Facebook to wage pro-Russian and anti-Western campaigns”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International - Georgia publishes a blog post: Activities of the Competition Agency in 2014-2019 years: Authorities and reviewed cases. “In 2014, the Competition Agency of Georgia was established as an independent legal entity. The main purpose of the Agency is to ensure a fair and free competitive environment in the country. The competition agency drew public attention mainly around an investigation of monitoring of three markets. One of them was to find out reasons of rise in bread prices in 2018, which was the order of the Prime Minister given to the agency. More than a year is passed since the start of the monitoring and it has not yet been revealed by the agency as to what caused the price to rise and whether there were any alleged unlawful actions, committed by bread supplier enterprises, or not. The second high-profile case was an investigation in the automotive fuel market. While in the third case there was a weird action performed by the competition agency”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a recommendation of the Ombudsperson that was issued by her in regard to cases of Shorena Glonti, Maia Merkviladze and Teona Bakuridze, those dismissed from Adjara TV and Radio of Public Broadcaster. “It is important to note that in her comprehensive recommendation the Public Defender substantially agrees with the legal justification and argumentation, which has been presented by EMC in lawsuits, already submitted in court on all three cases. EMC will share the text of the recommendation with the court soon and we hope that opinions of the Public Defender will further enhance the process of protection of legal interests and rights of Shorena Glonti, Maia Merkviladze and Teona Bakuridze”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), together with other representatives of civil society, presented commitments to the Secretariat of the Open Governance Inter-Agency Coordination Council. These commitments were distributed to relevant state agencies for review. “Commitments, presented by the organization, are based on the best international practices, including commitments assumed by OGP member states, and aim at enhancing engagement of citizens and the rule of law, increasing data access and freedom of information, fighting against corruption as well as promoting more transparency of state agencies in Georgia”.  Read more…  Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) publishes an evaluation of legislative changes adopted in connection with the state of emergency. “First of all, it should be noted that information in regard to the bill was released on March 17, 2020 and registered at the Parliament on the same day, however, it was not publicly available before April 13, 2020, until the Parliamentary Bureau submitted it to the relevant committee for review. During this period there was not ensured introduction of the bill to interested parties and provision of opportunity to submit comments pertaining to it. It should also be noted that the bill was examined only by the Legal Issues Committee and not by the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee, participation of which in this process was important. Respectively, the legislative process was carried out in a closed manner and there was no opportunity to participate in it in any way”, - is stated in the evaluation made by the organization. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to an annual report of the State Security Service.  “The organization considers a number of arguments, presented in the document, problematic. These arguments contribute to marginalization of specific groups, enhance the rhetoric of security and control not only in regard to occupied territories, but also in regard to dealing with so-called hybrid threats existing in the country. At the same time, the report contains only superficial and populist information about occupation, counter-terrorism and other sensitive issues, which fact makes it virtually impossible for both the parliament and public to perform effective supervision and monitoring of activities of the agency”, - is stated on the website of the organization.  Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. In response to global challenges entailed by the Corona virus, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) has elaborated recommendations in regard to both public information to be proactively published and implementation of state procurement in the conditions of a pandemic. “On the background of the occurred crisis, the importance of proactive publication of public information is further more obvious. The more open and transparent the approach of the Government is in terms of publishing information, the more informed decisions citizens are going to make. Besides, confidence in decisions taken during crisis situations will also increase. In addition, researchers, specialists in the field, civil society representatives and journalists will find it easier to access important information”. Read more…  Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a blog post: Importance of open data in the fight against pandemics: International Examples and Georgia. “In the near future, when internal spread of the virus starts, it is feasible to use the best international practice and introduce respective approaches. For instance, it is important to provide citizens with additional information about confirmed sites of infection in order for them to take extra careful measures. Along with tightening movement rules, it is necessary to ensure that citizens have access to a variety of online services, especially in terms of receiving health care and consultancy. Besides, the announced application will be of great importance” – is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) publishes a blog post: Russian information operation in Georgia - Coordinated network of “Sputnik” on Facebook. “ISFED discovered a suspicious scheme for coordinated dissemination of materials of Russian media source “Sputnik” in the Georgian space of “Facebook”. As a result of observation of open sources of “Facebook”, the organization came to the conclusion that fake personal “Facebook” accounts and certain thematic “Facebook” pages create a non-authentic coordinated scheme to disseminate materials posted on the website of “Sputnik”. Read more… Source: isfed.ge