Georgian authorities probe press organizations under foreign funding laws

New York, October 3, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Georgian authorities to repeal restrictive new laws covering foreign donor grants as Georgian authorities open investigations into the funding of at least five independent news outlets and a leading press association.

Earlier this year, the Georgian Dream party overhauled legislation governing the foreign donor funding on which many independent media outlets rely. The current probes reportedly have been launched under amendments to the law that ban foreign grants without government approval. Since May, a separate foreign funding law, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, has carried penalties of up to five years in prison.

The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics (GCJE), the press association under investigation, described the proceedings as “the first practical step in using new legislation to destroy [us].”

“It is no surprise that the first targets of repressive new funding laws are organizations known for their independence or reporting on sensitive topics,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Georgia should repeal restrictive amendments to the law on grants, as well as the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and allow independent media to operate without harassment.”

Over the past week, Georgia’s Anti-Corruption Bureau has sent extensive information requests under the law on grants to five outlets, according to local news website OC Media: 

• iFact, an investigative journalism platform reporting on corruption and abuses of power
• Mtis Ambebi, whose founder, Gela Mtivlishvili, has repeatedly been smeared by ruling party officials and targeted by pro-government intimidation campaigns
• Plangvis Detektori, which covers corruption and public governance, and Realpolitika, which covers international politics
• Project 64, a social media-based explanatory journalism project

GCJE and some of the affected outlets said they had stopped receiving foreign grants following the introduction of the new laws, citing fear of government retaliation. Several said they had refused to provide the requested information without a court order.

Some of the targeted outlets told OC Media they were now working voluntarily or with limited salaries in the absence of foreign grants, with one describing their operations as “in survival mode” and another saying they had “never faced a crisis of this scale.” 

The restrictive laws on foreign funding are part of a sharp decline in press freedom under the Georgian Dream party, detailed by CPJ in a recent submission to the United Nations.

CPJ emailed the government’s Anti-Corruption Bureau for comment but did not immediately receive a reply.