On February 28, 2014 in Sofia, Access to Information Programme (AIP) held the annual meeting with the journalists of its country-wide coordinators' network. The meeting was opened by the coordinator of the network, Nikolay Ninov. The journalists outlined the current situation of the access to information in the country. They presented statistics of the requests filed to the municipalities and the regional structures of the executive power bodies; the attitude of the administration towards the requestors; characteristics of the issued refusals, access to information litigation of citizens, journalists and NGOs.

 

AIP Executive Director Gergana Jouleva presented key achievements from AIP advocacy activities in 2013, summarized in AIP organizational annual report. The 2014 goals and challenges before AIP and the coordinators' network were outlined.

 

The Head of AIP legal team Alexander Kashumov presented problems and tendencies related to the access to information. Darina Palova and Fany Davidova from the AIP legal team presented statistics and characteristics of the cases referred to AIP for legal help and consultation during 2013. Kiril Terziiski presented an overview of ATI litigation.

 

AIP presented the Coordinator of the Year award to Lyubomir Jordanov, AIP coordinator in Montana, for his long-term and effective advocacy work in the region, for his active involvement in the organization and holding of raising awareness events, for his analytical materials related to the implementation of the Access to Public Information Act and AIP campaigns. Interview with Jordanov was published in AIP monthly FOI Newsletter for February 2014 (in Bulgarian).

 

 

The meeting was held within the project Advocacy Campaign for Amendments to the Access to Information Legislation supported by a grant under the NGO Programme in Bulgaria under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2009 – 2014 www.ngogrants.bg