Freedom of Information Annual Award Ceremony 2012

It’s already the 10^th time that the Freedom of Information Center's annual "Golden Key and Rusty Lock" award ceremony took place on September 28, 2012 - the International Right to Know Day.

The independent jury awarded the following institutions Golden Keys, as a symbol of openness and transparency:

• Positive Award for the state institution that was best applied the Armenian FOI Law was presented to the RA Ministry of Healthcare.

• The RA Ministry of Territorial Administration official website www.mta.gov.am was recognized as the best official web site in terms of access to information.

• 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 Israyelyan (www.aravot.am and "Azatutyun" Radio Station).

• Positive Award for the media outlet most actively covering FOI issues was presented to the CivilNet Internet TV.

"It is already 10 years that the annual "Golden Key and Rusty Lock" award ceremony is held on September 28 - the International Right to Know Day. Over these years this is the first time that the Jury was not able to select the most secret state body, therefore the negative Rusty Lock award was not announced", said the FOICA President Mrs. Shushan Doydoyan. “This is a great indicator that shows the consistent work done by us and our partners in the FOI field, as well as speaks about the efficient efforts of the government aimed at ensuring transparency,” she noted.

The winners of positive and negative awards were decided by the independent jury represented by 7 organizations in the FOI sphere.

This year the Special Award of the FOICA was given to the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the best organizing the RA membership to the Open Government Partnership International Initiative and for developing and presenting a good country Action Plan in OGP.

The selection criteria for the most open and secret agencies can be found at http://www.foi.am/en/award-standards. The previous years’ results are available here http://www.foi.am/en/awards-winners/.

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