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Success Story 42: Due to FOICA the Concept of the Struggle against Disinformation was Adopted

Thanks to two years of efforts of FOICA and active cooperation with partners, the Concept and the Action Plan of the Struggle against Disinformation 2024-2026 were adopted. The documents were developed by the Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

Success Story 41: Thanks to the court case FOICA received the requested information

In January 2024, the "Civil Pact" party, after the FOICA appealed to the court, asked to sign a settlement agreement and provided the required information on pre-election fundraising.

Success Story 40: FOICA vs. 7 Municipalities, A 5-Year Judicial Marathon

This is the first court precedent in Armenia, which refers to proactive transparency; the local public authority was obliged to fulfill the duty established by the FOI law to ensure proactive transparency, based on a judicial act.

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Success Story 37։ The FOICA’s Petition Changed the Amount of the Fine

February 3, 2022

On October 14, 2022, the joint legislative initiative of the Freedom of Information Center of Armenia and the Ministry of Justice to increase the amount of administrative liability for the violation of the right to receive information entered into force.

The author of the proposal was the FOICA, which submitted a petition to the Ministry of Justice, and the ministry gave a positive conclusion. Later, the FOICA jointly with the Ministry of Justice developed a draft law “On Making Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Armenia”: see https://www.e-draft.am/projects/3931.

The amount of the fine provided for in Article 189.7 has been increased by the amendment. now, instead of the previous fine of 10 to 50 thousand drams, a fine of 50 to 70 thousand drams has been set for the illegal disclosure of information by those in charge of information, and if the same violation is committed again within a year, instead of the previous 50 to 100 thousand drams, a fine of 100- a fine of 150 thousand drams.

Thanks to this initiative, the fines set for violation of the right to freedom of information will become comparable to the public danger of the offense, they will be 17.2 to 40% of the average monthly nominal salary in state and local self-government bodies (less compared to the higher salary of the official responsible for freedom of information), the other will have a real deterrent effect on officials responsible for freedom of information in refraining from violating their duty to provide information.

On the one hand, the adoption of the legislative amendment enables journalists and CSOs to properly protect their right to receive information in the event of a violation of the right to freedom of information, on the other hand, it will have preventive effect, forcing information holders to properly comply with the regulations set by law for responding to written information requests.