Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

The Freedom of information Center and RoA Prosecutor General’s Office have developed rules for providing information on criminal cases, within the USAID supported Access to Information for Community Involvement project. The rules were approved on December 28, 2012 by RoA Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan’s order. The rules are aimed at ensuring access to information on criminal proceedings, and increasing efficiency of cooperation with mass media in that process.

The international experience was studied during development of the rules for providing information on criminal cases. For this purpose the experts of RoA Prosecutor General’s Office and Freedom of information Center visited Strasbourg to meet the specialists in the sphere and to discuss the particularities of providing information on criminal cases and its restrictions. It has to be noted that with the support from OSCE Yerevan Office the rules were studied and evaluated by international experts, whose recommendations and remarks were duly noted in the document development phase. Also, public discussions of the document took place.
Ruzan Minasyan, a journalist responsible for the legal section of Aravot daily, noted that clarification of rules for providing information on criminal cases will be especially helpful for new-generation reporters who cover legal issues: “I personally know the ‘rules of the game’. What is positive in this, is that in adherence to the principle of public interest the Prosecutor General’s Office is willing to share more information than it is ‘allowed’ for coverage of criminal cases.”

Shushan Doydoyan, President of the Freedom of Information Center of Armenia stated: “It is an unprecedented practice that law enforcement agencies in cooperation with an NGO develop and adopt a document aimed at freedom of information and transparency. We are confident that public prosecution authorities will routinely apply this document in their work. We also hope this practice will soon be introduced in the Ministry of Defense and Police, too.”

The December 28, 2012 Order of the RoA Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan on “Approval of the Rules for Providing Information on Criminal Cases” elaborates on necessity to guarantee the right to receive information, as well as the importance of providing information on criminal proceedings and particularly, on activities of the prosecution office. The Prosecutor General assigned responsibility for control over application of the rules to himself personally.

Sona Truzyan, Spokesperson for the RoA Prosecutor General expressed her opinion as follows: “Regulation of information on criminal proceedings is of utmost importance, because in our routine operations we encounter a multitude of issues related to exercising citizens’ constitutional rights. The Prosecutor General’s Office implements criminal proceedings, exerts control over legality of criminal
investigation and pretrial inquiry, and it is crucial that in ensuring the transparency of these functions the human rights are protected, no privacy information is published, and that no language is used, which might violate defendant’s presumption of innocence or jeopardize detection and prevention of crimes. Conversely, citizens’ rights to receive information should not be unreasonably restricted under pretext of the secrecy of preliminary investigation. We hope that practical application of the rules will protect the journalists from possible arbitrary actions by state employees, as well as will minimize abuse.”

Incidentally, a number of novice journalists who cover legal issues consider that adoption of these rules restricts reporting activities, something that Ruzan Minasyan disagrees with. Moreover, she believes that adoption of such rules is an imperative.