Georgian Parliament Speaker says propaganda cannot enrich democracy amid USAID scandal

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday said the recent scandals involving USAID’s funding of liberal media worldwide showed that this international network, in reality, “disseminates propaganda and, in essence, represents foreign government-funded media”.

In his social media message, Papuashvili noted that hundreds of media companies and non-governmental organisations, and thousands of journalists were directly financed by this government-maintained international propaganda network, which was created and used for strengthening the favoured narrative and suppressing the alternative point of view.

“Dozens of Georgian media are, in effect, activist NGOs using social media for advocating a certain political line, not reporting facts. Through agitation, but also disinformation and fake news, these media companies amplify the narrative of the foreign propaganda network. They are created and funded solely for this purpose, albeit under the disguise of ‘independent’ and private media. It is noteworthy that the scandal involving USAID and its funding of propaganda has been reported at a minimum, if at all, by the donor-driven media”, the Parliament Speaker said.

Papuashvili emphasised that the new United States administration made it clear that foreign media grants had been the investment in the propagandistic network that reported only one side of the story not only in Georgia but also inside the US proper.

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“This malevolent media practice showed itself in recent days after the European Parliament adopted one more resolution on Georgia. The Resolution calls for sanctioning Georgian media owners. At the same time, however, the MEPs who sponsored the Resolution (McAllister, Gahler, Guetta, Zovko) are also members of the European Endowment of Democracy Board of Governors. In other words, these MEPs discriminate against a media company that does not share their views and policies, while, at the same time, funding their own propagandistic media through EED (aka European branch of NED). This, once again, fits precisely the pattern described by President Trump as a worldwide propaganda web, now actively promoted in Europe too, through the European Parliament and EED”, he noted.

“Yesterday’s X post by the German Ambassador to Georgia serves as a good example of this curious propaganda practice. He claimed the EU was ‘preparing’ EUR 1.8 bln for Moldova, implying Georgia was left out in the cold. Foreign Government (i.e. EED) funded media widely disseminated this news, without even checking the ‘details’, one of which is that out of the prepared EUR 1.8 bln, about EUR 1.5 bln is not-so-favorable credit, which Moldova should repay to EU. The news was then used by Georgia’s radical opposition to blow it out of proportion into a scandal about the gifted EU money ‘lost’ by the Georgian Government”, he continued.

He further added that caring about democracy should begin from telling the truth, and genuinely free media was the “vehicle” for it.

“Propaganda, even if delivered in diverse channels, cannot enrich democracy. It is astonishing to see what has become of journalism lately. Foreign-funded NGO activists participate in anti-government protests, demanding removal, deposing, or replacing the government, or, even better, claiming the right of veto on government’s decisions. Meanwhile, they continue reporting as they protest”, Papuashvili said.

“Activist journalism should be an oxymoron by definition. Who suffers in the end, is a citizen, who is deprived of the right to get objective news and is fed diversified propaganda instead. Ultimately, this erodes democratic pluralism and spreads malaise that is already felt not only in Georgia but also worldwide”, he concluded.