Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

Supported by Eurasia Foundation Office in Armenia.

Project duration- 6 months (September 1, 2007 –February 29, 2008).

The major goal of the project is to promote access to information for the Armenian media through conducting a comprehensive research in the field.

The project objectives are:

-     To summarize journalists’ practice in FOI field since the adoption of the Armenian FOI Law in 2003. To obtain first-hand information on the latest trends in access to official information by mass media.  To observe how effectively the provisions of the law on Freedom of Information are used by the journalists, how transparently and openly the state and local self-government bodies work for the media.

-     To assess what understanding media representatives have of the right to access to information and of the existing legal provisions in their practice;

-     To assess level of access to meetings, parliamentary sessions, election authorities and courts;

-     To identify the threats and challenges in FOI field faced by the journalists. What kind of obstacles the journalists face during their professional activities while requesting government held information, and what mechanisms are applied to protect their right of receiving information by the  journalists to appeal violations of their access to information right.

-     To foster dialog between the media and central and local government agencies’ PR and Information officers by providing the later with comprehensive information on how the media assess the PR officers’ work with the media. 

-     To draw country specific recommendations addressing the government and the media aimed at better protecting journalists’ right of access to information and improving the Armenian media practice in the Freedom of Information field.

To achieve the above mentioned objectives the following activities are proposed:

A. Conduct of a comprehensive Research of the media’s FOI practice;

B. Publication of the Research outcomes;

C. Presentation and dissemination of the Research.

The project outputs are:

-          A comprehensive research report on the media practice of the FOI field is developed and printed in two languages Armenian and English; 

-          1500 copies of the Research published in two languages and widely disseminated;

-          A presentation of the published Research is organized.

The following outcomes are expected:

-       Understanding of the media representatives of the right to access to information will be assessed;

-       Journalists’ practice in FOI field since the adoption of the Armenian FOI Law adopted in 2003 will be studied and summarised;

-       The threats and challenges faced by the journalists in FOI field will be identified; practical solutions to the identified needs and challenges will be developed to fully serve the public’s right to know; 

-       Access to meetings, parliamentary sessions, election authorities and courts will be assessed;

-       Level of openness of electoral authorities will be assessed:

-       Dialog between the media and central and local government agencies’ PR and Information officers will be fostered by providing the later with comprehensive information on how the media assess their work with the media;

Country specific recommendations addressing the government and the media aimed at protecting journalists’ right of access to information, improving the Armenian media practice in the FOI field, and fostering the dialog between the media and central and local government agencies will be drawn up.