Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

It’s already the 11th time that the Freedom of Information Center's annual "Golden Key and Rusty Lock" award ceremony took place on September 27, 2013 devoted to the International Right to Know Day.

The independent jury awarded the following institutions Golden Keys, as a symbol of openness and transparency:

• Positive Award for the state institution that was best applied the Armenian FOI Law was presented to the RA Ministry of Finance.
• The electronic system of the State Register of the Legal Entities of the RA Ministry of Justice www.e-register.am was recognized as the best official web site in terms of access to information.
• Positive Award for an NGO that best used the right for access to information was presented to "Transparency International Anti-corruption Center" NGO.
• Positive Award for the media outlet most actively covering FOI issues was presented to the www.panorama.am online media outlet.
• The Judge of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Districts Mr. Arayik Melqumyan was recognized as the judge who successfully restored the violated access to information right.
• The lawyer Mr. Artak Zeynalyan was recognized as the most consistent human rights advocate for the access to information right.
• This year two Special Positive Awards of the FOICA were given to:
• The Staff of the RA Government for efficient organization of the implementation of the Armenia Country Action Plan in the Open Government Partnership International Initiative.
• The RA Ministry of Diaspora - for providing the most official electronic answers to the e-FOI requests in 2013.

The independent jury awarded the following institutions with Rusty locks, as a symbol of secrecy:

• Negative award for a state institution, which is the author of the most ridiculous official answer, was awarded to the RA Ministry of Urban Development, the RA Ministry of Economy, the RA Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and to the Parking City Service CJSC.
• Negative award for a state institution, which provided the latest responses to the citizens, was awarded to the Yerevan Municipality.
• Negative award for a state institution, which does not fulfill its obligations in FOI field, was awarded to the RA National Assembly.

The winners of positive and negative awards were decided by the independent jury represented by 8 organizations in the FOI sphere.

The selection criteria for the most open and secret agencies can be found at http://www.foi.am/en/award-standards. The previous years results are available here http://www.foi.am/en/awards-winners/.

The Award Ceremony was organized by the Freedom of information Center of Armenia NGO by the USAID/Armenia support.

Freedom of Information Center NGO
foi@foi.am
www.foi.am
010 560 360