Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

The Report by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Mr. Mikos Haraszty on the State of Media Freedom in Armenia released on July 26, 2006 covers also situation on access to information in Armenia.  The chapter 8 “Access to Information” states: “Although Armenia adopted one of the most progressive Freedom of Information Laws in CIS countries, access to information by media professionals remains limited. This phenomenon is due to the poor implementation of the law.

In order to improve the situation, the Freedom of Information Center of Armenia (FOICA) has developed sub-legislative acts necessary for proper implementation. However, so far the Government has not approved these proposals. The reason is that they are based on certain provisions of the Freedom of Information Law, which the Government wants to change. These articles are Article 5 on Recording, Classifying and Maintaining Information, and Article 10 on the Conditions of Providing Information. On the other hand, these provisions are the very progressive parts of the law, which warrant immediate implementation.

Recomendations:
- Public discussion and adoption of sub-legislative acts are necessary to ensure the
proper implementation of the law.

- Article 5 and Article 10 are important guarantees for freedom of information, they
should not be subject to further changes or amendments”.

Please be advised that the full text of th ereport is available at the following link: http://www.osce.org/fom.