Tbilisi. The President of Georgia has met today with representatives of CSO and media organizations involved in the "This Affects You Too" campaign. They have briefed GiorgiMargvelashvili in detail about the launched initiative. As the President of Georgia has noted, those problematic issues and flawed aspects that still prevail as in legislation as well as in practice should definitely be remedied. According to him, human rights protection is the top priority of the authorities and all parties are obligated to warrant such protection. The meeting was held in the President's Palace at the initiative of the country's first official. For the full text Source: the campaign's web page in the social network.

Kakheti. A meeting of the NATO and EU Information Center in Georgia was held on March 14 in the Telavi Media Cafe, attended by representatives of local media organizations.According to the Director of the NATO and EU Information Center EleneGotsadze, key topic of the meeting focused on the priorities of Georgia's integration into NATO and the EU.A regional bureau of the NATO and EU Information Center was opened up on March 14 in Telavi.

Adjara. The Civil Society Institute and the local Public Assemblies of Keda, Khelvachauri and Kobuleti have jointly organized public meetings on March 12-14, aimed at discussing and evaluating the priorities of the Rural Aid Program.During the meetings part of the population has identified problems that should be taken into consideration when the next year's priorities are determined.

Tbilisi. Georgian Young Lawyers' Association responds to the decision of the Ministry of Culture and Historic Monuments' Protection about Sakdrisi-Khachiani gold mine. At the press conference held on March 14 GYLA voiced its position about the permit issued by the Ministry of Culture and Historic Monuments' Protection to "RMG Gold" for implementing gold mining in Sakdrisi Khachiani territory and gave negative assessment to the Ministry's decision. For the full text Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Constitutionalists' Association has organized a press conference on March 14. The organization's representatives urge the State Constitutional Commission to protect the state symbols and demand to regulate this issue not only by the organic law but by the Constitution of Georgia as well. For the full text Source: the organization's web page in the social network.

Shida Kartli. CSO "Article 42 of the Constitution" has organized a meeting with representatives of small and medium businesses and CSOs on March 14 in the Gori Civic Engagement Center.Topics of the meeting included: tax control, tax inspection, types of tax offences and liability, injunctive measures for payment of tax arrears and administration of tax disputes.After providing information on these issues, the organization's representatives have promised to assist citizens occupied in business upon their relevant requests.The event was organized as part of the project "Raising the Degree of Trust of Small and Medium Business Owners towards Georgian Justice System". Source:the organization's page in the social network

Tbilisi. "This Affects You” campaign organizations respond to the statement of the Deputy Minister of Interior Levan Izoria. "A group of non-governmental organizations has launched This Affects You, a campaign against illegal surveillance. ...Minister of Interior Aleksandre Chikaidze expressed his readiness for dialogue when the campaign was launched. In response to his statement, the campaigners stated their willingness to meet with the ministry’s senior officials to exchange views on the proposed draft legislation on surveillance. ...Regrettably, the Ministry’s representatives opted not to hold a working meeting where they would provide their arguments regarding the principles and concrete articles of the draft law. Instead, to our great surprise, Deputy Interior Minister Levan Izoria criticised the NGOs involved in the campaign". For the full text Source:transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Non-governmental organisation the "Young Barristers” released a statement. According to a statement, "no plea bargaining must occur on crimes of various categories". For the full text Source:barristers.ge

Tbilisi. The National Georgian Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum has released a newsletter on the activities implemented by the member organizations. The newsletter (geo) Source: the Platform's web page in the social network.

Tbilisi. Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum Georgian National Platform has published statement On Russian Federation’s Aggression Against Ukraine. Statement Source: Article 42 of the Constitution's web page in the social network.

Tbilisi. Eurasia Partnership Foundation and its partner civil society organizations express their concern about the slow pace of reforms in the food safety field.They appeal to the Georgian authorities to accelerate the reform process in order to improve, the protection of consumer rights. Statement (geo) Source: epfound.ge

Adjara. The Civil Society Institute and the Keda Public Assembly have organized a public meeting on March 12, attended by the representatives of local authorities, members of the Assembly and interested population. Meeting participants have discussed the priorities of the Rural Aid Program and results of interviews of the local population on the urgent and key issues for the rural development. The meeting transformed into discussion where the audience has expressed its comments and recommendations.

Tbilisi. Jumpstart Georgia has published a new visualization -"My repression is your regression".  "Georgia's current drug policy is punishment oriented and does not work. What's more, it increases the harm and implies disproportionate punishment.What's more, punishment is more expensive than treatment; a repressive drug policy increases the risk and spread of infections, and it does not comply with the EU's drug policy.The infographic is created within the framework of the Drug Policy Liberalization Campaign". The visualization Source:feradi.info

Tbilisi. The "National Center for Democratic Development" and partner CSOs "Young Diplomats' League" and the "Coalition Public Initiative" have released a statement. "... Georgia is unprepared for threats that our country may face as a result of Russian intervention in Ukraine and an attempt to annex territories of a sovereign state. Georgia does not express readiness to cope with number of challenges associated with the mobilization of military forces by the occupant state in the region. The Government of Georgia dodges away from the responsibility to express support to the ally states," says the statement. For the full text (geo) Source: ncdd.ge

Tbilisi. Non-governmental organization the "Young Barristers” address the Parliament of Georgia "on behalf of amendments in the statute of "Georgian Citizenship” and ask to reject discussion of the bill, according to which citizens of foreign countries who received a Georgian citizenship since January 1st 2013 face deprivation of citizenship". For the full text Source:barristers.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia released a blog post - "Georgian Public Broadcaster – new court cases exacerbate Board crisis". "The GPB Board has been non-operational due to the lack of a quorum since September. It requires at least two thirds of its members to be able to vote on and approve key decisions. Without a functional Board, the GPB is unable to address its financial troubles and programming challenges", says the blog post. For the full text Transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Fair Elections, GYLA and Transparency International released the statement, in which they welcomed the approval of the Tbilisi budget. They focus on certain procedural violations and express hope that "in the future the Sakrebulo and the City Hall will treat the issue with more responsibility and it will be possible to avoid procedural violations," the statement says. For the full text (geo) Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia released a blog post - "The Financial Monitoring Service should not be Transferred to the Ministry of Finance". "A legislative amendment proposed by to transfer Georgia’s Financial Monitoring Service from under the management of the National Bank of Georgia to the Ministry of Finance has been registered at the Parliament. This amendment to the Law on Legalisation of Illicit Income was proposed by Davit The Financial Monitoring Service should not be Transferred to the Ministry of Finance, Head of the Parliamentary Budget Committee, parliamentary majority. TI Georgia believes that this initiative is a step backwards, and should not be passed into law". For the full text Source:transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Young Greens remind public about a tragedy that took place in Japan three years ago - the earthquake, disorder of the Fukushima nuclear plant and the casualties. "After Chernobyl, three years after the second large-scale catastrophe, we live in the seismic region with an active nuclear plant. Against this background, very few residents of the South Caucasus realize the threats of an ecological catastrophe. Young Greens once again express our clearly negative attitude towards nuclear energy!", says the organization's web page in the social network. Source: the organization's web page in the social network.

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center has released video materials "Projection on the police cordon". As the organization's web page in the social network notes, "law-enforcers have opposed to screening of video material depicting the problems of workers from Kazreti on the building of the Government's Chancellery. The police has mounted a human wall in front of a projector, following which video projection continued on their bodies." Video projection.   Source: the organization's web page in the social network.

Tbilisi. Participating organizations of the campaign, "This Affects You Too – They Are Still Listening" published a statement. "Organizations welcome the statement made by Alexandre Chikaidze, Minister for Internal Affairs of Georgia, on 6 March. In the statement, he noted that the Ministry is ready for a dialogue with civil society about wiretapping and interception abuses. Additionally, the Minister noted that bringing the interests of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and citizens of Georgia into agreement would be an acceptable outcome", says the statement. For the full text Source:transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia, The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy and Media Development Fund released a statement. "At the end of February, the audit department of the Revenue Service (a legal entity of public law operating under the Ministry of Finance of Georgia) launched an inventory check of the company TV MR GE. This company is the licensed representative of Nielsen Television Audience Measurement and is the only entity in Georgia measuring television audiences – this data is very important for TV stations in order to attract advertisers. ...We believe that the Revenue Service should refrain from actions that will harm the development of free and competitive media market, which is a precondition of a media environment that is free from political bias and control", says the statement. For the full text Source:transparency.ge