Georgia's Parliament moved a step closer to passing a bill that critics fear will stifle media freedom and endanger the country's European Union membership bid, as police used water cannon, tear gas and pepper spray against tens of thousands of people who took to the streets in protest.
The law would require media and noncommercial organisations to register as pursuing the interests of a foreign power if they receive more than 20 percent of funding from abroad. The governing Georgian Dream party withdrew a similar proposal last year following massive protests.
Relations between Georgia and Russia have been complicated and turbulent since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. The two countries fought a short war in 2008 that ended with Georgia losing control of two Russia-friendly separatist regions.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, increasingly at odds with the governing party, has criticized the bill and has said she would veto it if Parliament passed it. The EU approved Georgia's candidate status in December but has sugge
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