Georgia will share experience on countering foreign information interference with Council of Europe, says Georgian Parliament Speaker

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday said Georgia was actively collaborating with the Council of Europe to share its expertise in countering foreign interference.

Papuashvili commented on the Council of Europe’s launch of efforts to counter foreign interference and its request for the member states, including Georgia to share its experience.

In his remarks, Papuashvili noted that the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has established a special group of experts dedicated to addressing foreign information influence.

“Yes, the Council of Europe is working on this issue, and the Committee of Ministers has set up a special group of experts dealing with foreign information interference. The expert group has prepared a document on this matter, and the Council of Europe has requested the member states of the Committee of Ministers to submit their views. Accordingly, we, like other institutions, were involved in sharing our recommendations and experience with the Council of Europe”, he said.

The Speaker emphasised that Georgia had accumulated experience from two perspectives - as a target of foreign information and broader interference, and as a country with strong experience in countering such challenges.

“We have seen over the past several years how this interference has taken place in our domestic politics through various instruments - disinformation, the spread of hate speech, which, unfortunately, in many cases is funded from Brussels. We have seen how incitement to hatred and disinformation have led certain groups toward violence and the undermining of state democracy”, Papuashvili continued.

He added that Georgia had also gained experience in identifying how such harmful operations were planned and implemented, while at the same time demonstrating how a country could remain resilient to such interference - both through practical measures to counter disinformation and interference, and through legislative regulation.

“In this regard, we have shared our experience”, Papuashvili concluded.