The Council of Ministers introduced to Parliament amendments to the 1968 Penal Code of Bulgaria dealing with the unauthorised disclosure of State secrets 11.11.2003
The Council of Ministers introduced to Parliament amendments to the 1968 Penal Code of Bulgariadealing with the unauthorised disclosure of State secrets. Comments of Article 19, The Global Campaign for Free expression, Letter of Open Society Justice Initiative to the Bulgarian lawmakers, Article of prof. Alasdair Roberts, published in Dnevnik newspaper on Oct. 15 2003.
The Right to Know is Gaining around the World 11.10.2003
An article by Thomas S. Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington D.C., and managing editor of www.freedominfo.org, a web network of international access advocates in International Herald Tribune.
28 September - International Right to Know Day 28.09.2003
AIP held the first Right to Know Day Awards Ceremony in Bulgaria. On a press conference on Sep. 28 AIP presented awards to citizens, media and NGOs, who have actively exercised their rights to freedom of information. Two awards - a positive and a negative one - were given to institutions. More information on the nominations and the ceremony can be found here.
Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria demands the contract with Crown Agents 03.06.2003
A three-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) in a hearing from June 03 decided to request officially the contract between the Bulgarian government and the British consultancy company Crown Agent, hired to conduct reforms in the Bulgarian customs system. SAC requested the contract in relation to an appeal filed in October 2002 against a decision of the Minister of Finance to refuse access to the full text of the contract, involving about 14,500,000 USD. The information request had been filed by Kiril
Terziiski, an attorney-at-law at AIP.The Supreme Administrative Court will review the contract in a private hearing, in order to decide whether the refusal of the Minister of Finance was lawful.
Amendments to the APIA were passed at first hearing in Parliament 08.05.2003
Amendments to the Access to Public Information Act were passed at first hearing in Parliament on Thursday, May 8, 2003. Access to Information Programme actively participated in the process of promoting the adoption of the Amending Act.
The SAC repealed the refusal of the Minister of Science and Education 17.03.2003
With the assistance of AIP Ivaylo Ganchev has won administrative court case 8518/2002 in front of the Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria. The citizen appealed a refusal of the Minister of Science and Education (MSE) to present documents in relation to renting parts of the lobby of the Ministry for commercial purposes. Violating the procedures of the State Property Act and the Regulation on its Implementation, the Minister had given parts of the lobby to a private company, which had placed advertising banners.
The Year of the Rational Ignorance 11.02.2003
Access to Information Programme presents the report of the sociological survey Fulfillment of the Obligations under APIA by the bodies of the Executive power 2002. The report is published in the frame of the project "Practical Access to Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe" implemented with the leading role of Article 19 with the financial support of the European Initiatve for Democracy and Human Rights. Read the full text here: http://store.aip-bg.org/publications/reports_eng/ignorance2.pdf.