23:45, 21 February 2004

Civic Initiative for Freedom of Information lays strictures on drafted amendments and supplements to Law on Freedom of Information

The draft legislation containing amendments and supplements to the Law on Freedom of Information deprives citizens of the real opportunity to obtain information, threatens all the anti-corruption initiatives, and do not give state structures the opportunity to act in transparent manner and be accessible to the people, reads a statement by the Civic Initiative for Freedom of Information. The Initiative urges that this draft legislation should not be discussed and the law currently in force should be used since it "has a great positive potential." The authors of the statement call the "absurd list" of persons giving information as one of the main defects of the draft legislation. By it, all the juridical persons and private businessmen undertake obligations to give information whereas, according to the authors of the statement, only state structures and local government bodies should be charged with the obligation to give information. The Initiative rates the question of shortening the list of data to be made public obligatory as a key one too.

Source: Noyan Tapan Information Agency (Armenia)