According to the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia in terms of transparency, France had much stricter legislation than Georgia, which provides for criminal liability and imprisonment, and now it intends to tighten regulations regarding disinformation as well.

As he noted, all of this is understandable, and they fully share the fears that exist in various countries.

“France already had stricter legislation than us. The law passed in 2024, after ours, precisely provides for criminal liability and up to 5 years of imprisonment in the event that an entity with foreign funding does not disclose its finances. You know that there is no criminal liability in our case; under the transparency law, there are only financial fines. So, France has always had stricter legislation than us. Now it is moving toward even further tightening regarding disinformation. All of this is understandable; we fully share the fears that exist in various countries.

Today it is indeed the case that foreign interference - through disinformation, election interference, and cyberattacks - is one of the main challenges to the resilience of democratic institutions. Simply, the point is that it does not matter who interferes with you; there is no good or bad state when it comes to interfering in your internal affairs. The interference itself is bad. Therefore, the differentiation that if Russia interferes it is bad, and if Germany interferes it is good, in itself shows the illogicality of such an approach.

Therefore, we all agree that it is necessary to protect our democratic institutions from foreign interference, manipulation, and influence, and to protect our society from disinformation, regardless of which source it comes from. The source does not matter; the main thing is that anyone who interferes is, by their very nature, already in the wrong”, - said Shalva Papuashvili.