The Statement of the Organizations Involved in the Campaign “This Affects You Too”

 For many years, the civil society has been talking about the problems existing in relation to the secret eavesdropping and surveillance and the necessity of introducing reform in this regard. One year ago, the representatives of the civil society sector addressed the parliament of Georgia with the legislative amendment initiatives. However, due to the resistance of the law enforcement bodies the process was procrastinated. Despite the declared will of the governing political group to change the incumbent faulty system, there were no effective actions made in this regard. This is why the civil society sector started active advocacy campaign in March of this year – “This Affects You Too – They are Still Listening”. Despite the active engagement of the civil society sector, the fast enactment of the law had strong opponents – the law-enforcement bodies. In the last period, the issue of the secret eavesdropping and surveillance has become the subject of the political debates and discussions as well. Political parties got involved in the discussion of the subject as well; the parties, of course, along with other reasons, were motivated with political interests, which, in a number of cases, got reflected in politicization of the campaign and sometimes even in the attempts to discredit the campaign. The ongoing discussion was exacerbated when the events relating to the “Rustavi 2” added to the existing environment. Considering the specific nature of this case, it is important for the investigation to be conducted in a transparent and objective manner and to provide timely and well-grounded answers to the questions existing in the society. Especially, it is to be considered that the events are inflamed in the context of the upcoming local self-government elections.