Lower thirds:

00:02 Report by Lisa Louis
00:39 Tamar Kintsurashvili | Executive Director Media Development Foundation
02:47 Tamar Kintsurashvili | Executive Director Media Development Foundation

SCRIPT

00:02
 
For more than a decade, Tamar Kintsurashvili has been teaching how to distinguish facts from lies.
 
But her work - and her convictions - could soon land her in jail.

In Georgia, foundations like hers that receive funding from abroad, are by law required to register as ‚foreign agents‘ – or face financial penalties. Those penalties will soon be replaced with prison time.

Tamar refuses to abide.
 
00:29
+++ SOT – Tamar Kintsurashvili, Executive Director Media Development Foundation (sic)
"Goal of this legislation is to undermine trust in our actions. You need to have credible information in order to make right choices. This is how democracy works. Information is power and powerful institutions, governments autocrats,  some business interests are trying to manipulate public opinion."
 
00:58
The so-called “foreign agents” law has triggered mass protests – as did an announcement by the Moscow-leaning government party that it would put the country's EU accession on hold.
 
Atmo protests
 
Additional legislation that restricts the media and political activism is in the making – and could enrage tempers further.
 
Tamar has seen volatile times in her country before. Born in 1970, she worked as a journalist after the fall of the Soviet Union.
 
But never has she felt under pressure like now, she says. 

She says masked men have repeatedly defaced her group's offices... labelling her and her colleagues “pseudo-liberal fascists.”
 
01:43
+++ SOT – Tamar Kintsurashvili, Executive Director Media Development Foundation
And we were receiving offensive calls, including during midnight. They were swearing at me. They reach my family members, my husband and my daughter. On a daily basis you learn that government tries to invent something new to to stop you.
 
02:07
So for Tamar, international support is crucial. She is currently in France, on a fellowship - and regularly meets with human rights defenders from all over the world.
 
ON – Tamar Kintsurashvili, Executive Director Media Development Foundation
We are working on media freedom, disinformation and hate speech. Right now, we have existential threat to survive in the framework of new foreign agent law.
 
She's planning to return to Georgia afterwards - and says DW's Freedom of Speech Award has boosted her morale.
 
02:40
+++ SOT – Tamar Kintsurashvili, Executive Director Media Development Foundation
It gives you feeling that you are not left alone against this oppressive government. And this is a message that we are doing important work for our country and for better and democratic Georgia.
 
02:55
Together with other activists, Tamar has launched an appeal against the foreign agents law at the European Court of Human Rights.
 
Determined as ever to stand her ground against an increasingly repressive government.