CIVICUS discusses the rise of foreign agents laws and their impact on civil society and media with Kathryn Beck, Acting Director of Access to Law at the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Foreign agents laws, which require organisations that receive foreign funding to register with the state, are spreading worldwide, particularly following Russia’s introduction of such a law in 2012. They apply to civil society organisations and increasingly to independent media. Although presented as transparency measures, these laws stigmatise civil society and media and enable authorities to criminalise organisations that work to hold them accountable to express dissent.
