“This once again demonstrates how important it is to fight foreign interference in the modern information era. In this regard, I believe we have experience on both fronts, and we shared our expertise on this matter,” said Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili during remarks to journalists about Georgia being approached by the Council of Europe to share its experience in countering foreign interference.

According to Papuashvili, the Parliament and other state institutions are actively involved in providing Georgia’s recommendations and expertise to the Council of Europe.

“The Council of Europe has established a special group under the Committee of Ministers that focuses on issues of foreign information interference. In this context, the expert group prepared a document and requested feedback from the members of the Committee of Ministers. Accordingly, we, like other institutions, are involved in sharing our recommendations and experience with the Council of Europe. This again highlights the importance of combating foreign interference in today’s information age, and I believe we have experience in both aspects. On one hand, as a country that has been a target of foreign information and general interference, and on the other, as a country with strong experience in how to resist such interference.

We have seen that over the past several years, various tools have been used to interfere in our internal politics, spreading disinformation and hate speech, which unfortunately, in most cases, has been funded from Brussels. This hate speech and disinformation have been used to drive certain groups of people toward violence and to undermine the foundations of our democracy. We have observed how such harmful operations are planned and carried out. At the same time, we have demonstrated how a country can effectively resist such interference, both in practical terms and through legislative measures. We shared our experience on this matter,” the Parliament Speaker concluded.