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.

 

Within the Access to Information Day, the AIP holds two events – a seminar for representatives of public bodies focusing on access to information legislation and implementation practices and a workshop with requestors focusing on practical skills how to exercise one’s right to information.

 

During the seminars, the AIP Executive Director Gergana Jouleva presented the results from the 2016 audit on institutional web sites performed by AIP and particularly the state of the active transparency of the institutions in each of the two regions and their positions in the 2016 Active Transparency Rating. She also presented the new obligations for proactive publication of information online, introduced by the 2015 amendments to the Access to Public Information Act (APIA).

 

The Head of AIP legal team Alexander Kashumov presented the 2015 APIA amendments related to the electronic access to information, the restrictions to the right of access to information, and the re-use of public sector information.

 

During the workshops, the AIP attorneys-at-law Darina Palova and Alexander Kashumov presented successful tactics for obtaining access to information from public bodies and from public registers and government data sets to journalists, NGOs, and activists.

 

The workshop participants were given on-spot legal help on specific access to information cases by the members of the AIP legal team.

 

Information and pictures from the meetings held in the towns of Smolyan and Stara Zagora were published and disseminated through AIP Monthly FOI Newsletter, May 2016 issue (in Bulgarian).

 

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.