Armenia

[AM] Statute on Access to Information Enacted

IRIS 2003-10:1/21

Andrei Richter

Comenius University (Bratislava)

On 23 October 2003, President Robert Kocharyan of Armenia signed the Statute "On Freedom of Information", adopted unanimously on 23 September 2003 by the National Assembly (parliament) of Armenia.

The Statute regulates relations in the sphere of information, determines the powers of authorities that oversee the free provision of information to the public, as well as the procedure, methods and conditions of access to information. The Statute shall be binding on government authorities, bodies of self-government, state institutions, organisations financed from the national budget, as well as so-called organisations of "public importance" and their officials (Art. 1). These bodies and officials are considered as "managers of information".

According to the Statute "managers of information" shall be obliged to publish on an annual basis a set of informational resources; in addition to that all possible changes made later on in these resources shall be published within 10 days of their acceptance (Art. 7). Publication of this information shall be done in any form accessible to the public, and whenever possible on the Internet.

In cases of formal requests for information, it shall not be necessary to give any reason for such requests (Art. 9). If a written reply to such a request consists of 10 pages or less, it shall be provided free of charge; oral and electronic replies (via Internet) are also to be provided free of charge.

The Statute comes into force 10 days after its official publication.