“The civil society was waiting for this Act more than 12 years since adoption of the FOI Law in 2003,” according to Shushan Doydoyan, director of the Freedom of Information Center of Armenia, who has just been selected as the head of the newly established Personal Data Protection Agency in Armenia for a term of five years.

The act enabled citizens, journalists and other requestors to submit electronic requests to the state bodies and get responses according to the procedures set by the Armenian FOI law. The new legal regulation recognizes that information requests sent by an e-mail or via the official websites of information holders (state bodies, self-governmental bodies, state institution, etc.) are official requests. FOICA prepared a practical guide to the act in Armenian.

“This will make positive progress in the field of freedom of information, saving time and resources of the state bodies and citizens, and making interactions with government agencies most effective and simple,” said Doydoyan, whose sister Liana will replace her as head of FOICA. Liana Doydoyan, was FOICA’s project coordinator and OGP expert.

Source: www.freedominfo.org