Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

Freedom of Information Center announces for the 12th time the recipients of the "Golden Key and Rusty Lock" awards on 26 September 2014 in Yerevan. The award ceremony was devoted to the International Right to Know Day.

Prime Minister of Armenia Hovik Abrahamyan welcomed the guests on this occasion and stressed the importance of transparency and openness in the government system of Armenia. The Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Traian Hristea mentioned in his welcoming speech: “The EU reiterates that free, diverse and independent media constitutes one of the cornerstones of a democratic society by facilitating the free flow of information and ideas, and by ensuring transparency and accountability”.

The host of the event President of the Freedom of Information Centre of Armenia Shushan Doydoyan welcomed the quests and announced the winners. The independent jury awarded the following institutions with Golden Keys, as a symbol of openness and transparency:

• Positive Award for the state institution that was best applied the Armenian Freedom of Information Law was presented to the Armavir Governor's office
• The best official web site in terms of access to information was recognized the official website of the Police of RA: www.police.am
• Special Positive Award for best implementation of Open Government Partnership Commitment of the Armenian Action Plan for 2012-2014 was awarded to the Ministry of Territorial Administration;
• Positive Award for an NGO that best used the right for access to information was presented to the Armavir Development center NGO
• Positive Award for the media outlet most actively covering Freedom of Information issues was presented to the Public Radio of Armenia: www.armradio.am
• Positive Award for most actively using the Freedom of Information right was awarded to the yerkir.am on line media.
• Advocate Karen Mejlumyan was recognized as the most consistent human rights advocate for the access to information right.

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 Armenian State University of Economics.
• Negative award for a state institution, which provided the latest responses to the citizens, was awarded to the State Committee on Immovable Property Cadastre .

The winners of positive and negative awards were decided by the independent jury represented by 7 organizations in the Freedom of Information 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 in cooperation with the Armenian Young Lawyers Association by the European Union financial assistance in the frames of Multi-Faceted Anti-Corruption Promotion Project.