Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

The journalist of the infocom.am news site contacted the FOICA and asked for assistance in obtaining information from the ruling party Civil Contract before local elections 2023. The problem was that the Civil Contract party had left unanswered the journalist’s information requests regarding the donations received by the party for the Yerevan city elections, in particular, regarding compliance with legal requirements for political parties’ donation processes.

In order to support the journalist, the FOICA, based on the RA Law on Freedom of Information, on August 23, 2023 sent an information request to the Civil Contract party, asking to provide the requested information. The FOICA’s information request also remained unanswered.

The FOICA appealed the party's “mute refusal” with a second request sent in September 11, 2023, again demanding the same information. The FOICA’s information request also remained unanswered, although the timeframes for answering the request, defined by the Law, have expired.

In such conditions, when on the one hand there is no state authorized body to appeal violations in the field of freedom of information, on the other hand, the FOICA has already addressed the Civil Contract party with two requests, the only instance of appeal remains the court. Moreover, taking into account that it is about the violation of freedom of information legislation by the ruling party, such a court trial claims to be strategic.