A media publication is striking back at NewsGuard, an American company that gives clients “reliability ratings and scores” for hundreds of news and information websites and often tags conservative sites with low grades. 

Consortium News has filed a lawsuit against NewsGuard and the U.S. government, accusing them of defamation and working in tandem to censor the outlet’s foreign policy reporting in violation of the First Amendment.

After Ukrainian Forces regained control of the port city of Kherson last November, following eight months of Russian occupation, some journalists entered the liberated city within hours. Without formal permission to be there, they documented the jubilant crowds welcoming soldiers with hugs and Ukrainian flags. Ukrainian officials, who tightly control press access to the front lines, responded by revoking the journalists’ press credentials, claiming that they had “ignored existing restrictions.” 

The Georgian people have made it clear that they want integration into the Euro-Atlantic region and democratic prosperity for their country, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated in an annual report.

He also welcomed the Georgian parliament’s decision on the so-called “foreign agent law” and called on Georgia’s political leaders to work together on necessary reforms.

Over the past weeks, international media has been very vocal about the protests happening in Georgia against the draft ´foreign agent law´ in the country. Had the government not backed out on it due to the protests, the law would have allowed Georgia to label media and NGOs who receive more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad as ´foreign agents´. Not only protestors, but US and EU officials also found the Georgian Dream Party’s initiative objectionable.

Pro-Russian and anti-gay radicals in Georgia burned the EU flag and tearing it from the flagpole in front of the parliament building. The police didn’t react it at all. The group behind the incident was the conservative Alt-Info, which also participated in the attack on journalists on July 5, 2021.

The EU and US have criticised plans by Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, president of Bosnia’s mainly Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity, to push a new Russian-style law which would allow the entity to mark civil society and non-governmental organisations as “foreign agents”.

Representatives of the Russian authorities and Kremlin propagandists are actively commenting on the events related to the protests in Tbilisi against the so-called “foreign agents”. Some of them declare that the bill initiated in the Parliament of Georgia, which the ruling party Georgian Dream has already withdrawn after 3 days of protests, has nothing to do with Russia, while others are already threatening Georgia with negative consequences of these events.

Lawmakers in the former Soviet republic of Georgia voted to drop a controversial "foreign agents" bill on Friday after days of mass protests in the capital, Tbilisi, and widespread criticism from the West.

The law would have required all individuals, civil society organizations, and media outlets that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as foreign agents, opening the door to monitoring and possible sanctions.

Georgia's majority party withdrew a controversial "foreign agent" law that was working its way through the country's parliament after thousands of angry protesters took to the streets and squared off against riot police in the capital city of Tbilisi. 

Protests grew increasingly violent as police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the large crowds. Parliament's about-face on the bill is a victory for the protest movement and signals that the government is at least for now listening to public opinion.