“Openness is not something to be afraid of. The posting of community decisions cannot be dangerous,” Shushan Doydoyan, president of the FOI Center, reminded once again in the Kotayk marz.On May 29, Shushan Doydoyan, President of the Freedom of Information Center, met with 56 community leaders from Kotayk marz in Hrazdan to discuss issues related to the application of the Freedom of Information Law and public awareness in the marz. The meeting was attended by the Kotayk marzpet, Kovalenko Shahgaldyan.

In his speech, the marzpet emphasized the need for public information and openness, and requested the community leaders to hold at least one or two press conferences per year in order to inform the public about the work they had done.

The FOI Center’s president assured the participants of the meeting that “the more open their work is, the more public will trust them.” She also added that “openness involves two important aspects: giving the people complete answers within five days and making community-related information available to the people.”

Karen Sargsyan, head of the information and public relations department in the Kotayk marzpetaran, urged the participants “to adopt a culture of freedom of information and public information.” He noted that some of the communities in the marz still have problems with openness. “Bulletin boards placed in 5 communities (Hrazdan, Charentsavan, Nor Hatchn, Byureghavan and Nor Gyugh) by the FOI Center have played a significant role in the introduction and modernization of public information means. Bulletin boards are there for posting community leaders’ and councils’ decisions and other documents required to be made public in accordance with the Freedom of Information Law, as well as for other similar public notices. ”

In 2006, the Kotayk marzpetaran received the FOI Center’s Golden Key award in the “most open state agency” category.

An “historic” meeting between the FOI president Shushan Doydoyan and the mayor of Hrazdan, Aram Danielyan, also took place in the Kotayk marz. In 2007, the mayor received the FOI Center’s Rusty Lock award. The mayor was also sued by the FOI Center for failing to provide information. Issues related to freedom of information and openness were discussed during the meeting. The mayor described the ongoing reforms in the area of public information, while the FOI president expressed her preparedness to help and offered assistance in making the reforms more effective.

The event was conducted with financial assistance of USAID within the framework of “ACCESS TO INFORMATION FOR COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT” project.