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Promotion of Open Government through FOI Legal Assistance and Litigation
May 1, 2006 – April 30, 2009

Description: The aim of this project is to promote transparency and accountability of government by encouraging and facilitating public demand for government held information. The project objectives are to support citizens and journalists who seek government held information; to help people get access to justice in FOI cases; to address the courts in cases when information of high public interest is refused; to systematize FOI litigation practices; to use the results of legal assistance in public campaign for better Freedom of information practices; ant to spread out the positive results of the AIP experience in national and global networks. The aims of the project will be fulfill through provision of consultancy to journalists, NGOs and citizens in cases where they seek information and in cases of refusal; filing applications and submissions to the administrative courts; court representation; and permanent media campaign on FOI cases and practices.

Donor of the project: Open Society Institute, Human Rights and Governance Grants Program, Budapest

Rresults:
- increased number of NGOs and journalists who exercise actively their right to access government held information;
- Access to Public Information Litigation in Bulgaria (2005-2008), vol. 4;
- Important court decisions delivered on AIP assisted access to information cases;
- Provision of legal help in cases in which journalists, citizens, and NGOs seek information or a refused access;
- Organization and holding of a national conference Access to Information Litigation in Bulgaria (held on March 27, 2009).
- In 2008, the monthly magazine Legal World awarded Alexander Kashumov, head of AIP legal team, as the “Attorney of the Year” after the nomination of court reporters.
- Thirty-six electronic monthly newsletters.
- participation of AIP experts in regional and international conferences, forums, trainings and seminars on access to information litigation in 25 countries.

More information

National “Access to Information Litigation in Bulgaria” Conference was organized and held on March 27, 2009 in Sofia. The conference was organized and held by AIP in the frame of the project Promotion of Open Government through FOI Legal Assistance and Litigation, financed by the Open Society Institute, Human Rights and Governance Grants Program, Budapest.

Among the 90 participants were lawyers, judges from administrative courts, representatives of NGOs, media, activists, citizens who have submitted ATI requests and have appealed refusals in the court. The Chairperson of the Supreme Administrative Court, Mr. Konstantin Penchev addressed the audience at the opening. Foreign experts from Ukraine, Georgia, Spain, Macedonia, the Netherlands, and UK took part in the conference.
Experience in the defense of the right of access to information at an European level was shared by Mr. Tony Bunyan (Director of Statewatch), Ms. Eva Moraga (Legal Advisor, Access Info Europe), and Roger Vleugels (Dutch FOI expert), Mr. Roman Romanov (Rule of Law Program Director at the International Renaissance Foundation Ukraine), and Mr. Roger Vleugels (Dutch FOI expert).

Among the topics discussed were the 2008 amendments to the Bulgarian Access to Public Information Act; issues and results from AIP litigation practices on the Access to Public Information Act during 2005-2008; the trade secret and protection of personal data exemption; preparatory documents exemption; access to information and classified information; the scope of the definition of information; the execution of court judgments. Please, refer to the agenda of the conference http://www.aip-bg.org/pdf/agenda2009_eng.pdf. Pictures from the conference can be viewed here.

Access to Information Litigation in Bulgaria 2005-2008: Selected Cases, volume 4 is available in English. The book was published in 2008. It contains analytical part, which reviews the main problems related to the court practice with regard to the Access to Public Information Act during the last years. The analysis encompasses the development of both cases related to the exercise of the right of access to public information and to the implementation of the exemptions from the right of access to information. Summaries and twenty-seven decisions on 14 court cases in which AIP legal team has provided legal help, including court representation, were included as appendices to the book.

At the presentation of the volume 4 of the Access to Public Information Litigation in Bulgaria (2005-2008), the Chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court, Mr. Konstantin Penchev noted:
We may have the best laws, but we have to implement them, i.e. the society shall make the mechanism work. I would like to thank to the Access to Information Programme because theymade the court think over and apply the law. They made the court answer – sometimes correctly, sometimes not, but developing its practices – the questions set forth.

 


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