Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 22.12.2016
The team of Access to Information Programme wishes you health and successful initiatives in 2017!
The Access to Information Programme Celebrates its 20th Anniversary 24.10.2016
The Access to Information Programme celebrated its 20thAnniversary on October 21, 2016. The event was under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Mr. Rossen Plevneliev and was held in the Sofia Hotel Balkan.
14th Right to Know Day Awards Ceremony 28.09.2016
The Access to Information Programme held the 14th Right to Know Day Awards Ceremony on 28 September 2016. Nearly 80 FOI activists from Sofia and the country gathered at the Literature club Peroto (The Quill)in the National Palace of Culture – Sofia. Among the guests were partner NGOs, journalists, academia; officials from executive bodies and municipalities. The 2016 Right to Know Day Awards Jury selected the winners in six categories out of 41 nominations.
Support the Freedom of Information Cause in Bulgaria 03.08.2016
The AIP launched a fundraising campaign in support of its mission to assist the exercise of the right to information on the occasion of the Right to Know Day. If you also believe that democracy is the oxygen of democracy, support us!
Trainings for Officials from the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice 21.06.2016
The Executive Director of AIP Gergana Jouleva and the Head of AIP Legal Team Alexander Kashumov were invited to lecture in two one-day trainings for public officials from the administration of the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice
Information Days in Yambol and Sliven 15.06.2016
On 14 and 15 June 2016, the Access to Information Programme held two Access to Information Days in the towns of Yambol and Sliven respectively. 57 representatives of regional and local administration, NGOs, journalists, and citizens from the two towns took part in the events organized by AIP. The Information Days are organized within the project Civil Center for Support of Transparency in Public Life, supported with a grant by the America for Bulgaria Foundation.
Information Days in Smolyan and Stara Zagora 20.05.2016
On 13 and 18 May 2016, the Access to Information Programme held two Access to Information Days in the towns of Smolyan and Stara Zagora respectively. 53 representatives of regional and local administration, NGOs, journalists, and citizens from the two towns took part in the events organized by AIP. The events are organized within the project Civil Center for Support of Transparency in Public Life, supported with a grant by the America for Bulgaria Foundation.
2016 Active Transparency Rating in Bulgaria 26.04.2016
On April 26, 2016, at a press conference in Sofia, the Access to Information Programme presented the results of its 2016 Audit on Institutional web sites in Bulgaria. The 2016 Active Transparency Ratings and the 2016 Budget, Financial Transparency and Integrity of Municipalities Map were launched. In the lack of a public body to coordinate and control the implementation of the APIA, including the obligations for proactive publication of information, the AIP Audit serves as a model publication scheme for public bodies to increase their active transparency.
AIP Annual Report Access to Information in Bulgaria 2015 05.04.2016
The Access to Information Programme presented findings and conclusions from its sixteenth annual report Access to Information in Bulgaria 2015 at a pressconference held in the Bulgarian News Agency on April 5, 2016. The report contains recommendations related to the access to information legal framework and its implementation, as well as other obligations granting transparency; detailed review of the amendments to the APIA as of December 2015; analysis of the 2015 APIA amendments with regard to the proactive publication of information online; what are the institutions addressed and what type of information was sought by the requestors who turned for legal help to AIP in 2015; tendencies in the court practices on access to information cases in 2015 and summaries of cases in which AIP has provided court representation.
AIP Held the Annual Meeting with Its Coordinators 18.03.2016
On March 18, 2016 in Sofia, Access to Information Programme (AIP) held the annual meeting with the journalists of its country-wide coordinators' network.
37 Access to Information Cases of Bulgarian NGOs 19.02.2016
The Access to Information Programme presents a collection of 37 cases of nongovernmental organizations which have used the procedures under the Access to Public Information Act (APIA) to seek and obtain information from public bodies and to defend their right to information in the court when being refused. The stories encompass the period 2005 – 2015 and are collected in the book “Public Participation and Access to Information (15 Years of the APIA, 37 Stories of NGOs)" which AIP has published in Bulgarian.
Access to Information – an Instrument for Achieving our Goals 01.02.2016
On January 29, 2016, the Access to Information Programme (AIP) held the national conference “Access to Information – an Instrument for Achieving Our Goals.” The conference was held in Sofia City Hotel and was dedicated to the amendments to the Access to Public Information Act (promulgated in the State Gazette on December 11, 2015). It was the concluding event of the project “Enhancing the Capacity of Nongovernmental Organizations to Seek Public Information,” supported by a grant under the NGO Programme in Bulgaria under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2009 – 2014 (www.ngogrants.bg).
AIP presents the movie “I have the right to know” 01.02.2016
The 18-minutes educational movie illustrates the stages in searching and obtaining information from public bodies under the procedures of the Bulgarian Access to Public Information Act. It features cases of nongovernmental organizations and journalists who have used the procedures of the APIA, have filed requests to public bodies and have appealed access to information refusals in court.