The Freedom of Information Center’s 10th annual “Golden Key and Rusty Lock” award ceremony took place on September 28, 2012– the International Right to Know Day. An independent jury awarded a Golden Key, as a symbol of openness and transparency, to the following nominations:ccc

• Positive Award for the state institution that was best applied the Armenian FOI Law was presented to the RA Ministry of Healthcare.
• The Ministry of Territorial Administration official website  www.mta.gov.am was recognized as the best official web site in terms of access to information.
• Special Award was given to the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the initiative of Armenia’s membership to the Open Government Partnership International Initiative and for developing and presenting a comprehensive country Action Plan in OGP.
• Positive Award for an NGO that best used the right for access to information was presented to “Journalists for the Future”NGO.
• Positive Award for the journalist that best used the right for access to information was awarded to Mrs. Anna Israelyan (www.aravot.amand “Azatutyun” Radio Station).
• Positive Award for the media outlet most actively covering FOI issues was presented to the CivilNet Internet TV.

This is the first time that the Jury was not able to select the most secret state body, therefore the negative Rusty Lock award, a symbol of secrecy, was not announced.This is a great indicator that shows the consistent work done by us and our partners to promote access to public informationand itdemonstrates the continuedefforts of the government to ensure transparency. The winners of the positive awards were selected by the independent jury represented by seven organizations that work on the freedom of information.

The selection criteria for the most open and secret agencies can be found at https://www.foi.am/en/award-standards.

The Award Ceremony was organized by the Freedom of information Center of Armenia NGO with USAID support.