Information policies, especially ensuring access to information, are very important for Armenia which is in process of developing liberal economic policy, democratic political system and free civil society. Free access to information helps to improve governance mechanisms. Government-society relations acquire new and qualitatively different meaning in the era of global outreach of information technologies and communication transparency.

Transparency of government can also be important in fight against corruption, as that means possibility of holding government bodies and government officials accountable before citizens.

Benefits from accessibility of information on activities of government are twofold: it creates opportunities for greater public awareness on legislative and executive governance issues, and, secondly, creates possibility for enhancing civic awareness as well as awareness of individual rights.

Currently there are two basic avenues for getting access to information:

1) Public registry, agency registries, IRTEK, Internet and media;

2) Written or oral request for information submitted to a respective agency.

Let us discuss the level of accessibility for each of the above. Laws and acts adopted by the Parliament, the President, or the Government are published in the official bulletin as well as by paid electronic services, such as IRTEK. Before that, official media used to publish the presidential acts as well. The official bulletin is published in 1000 copies (400 copies ordered by government, 500 delivered to subscribers, and 100 are sold in public) and is available only in three public libraries, located in Yerevan only. The list of legislative acts, decisions and normative acts, as well as their amendments is not available. Thus, developing a searchable system of legislative data would facilitate the task of finding necessary information.

Another way of getting access to information is by means of paid (i.e. fee-based) electronic information system which, by definition, is far less accessible for broad public. Moreover there is no alternative free version that would enable public to get information on enacted legislation. Even government structures have to pay for using those services. Susanna Grigorian, head of the ‘Official bulletin’ Ltd., in a telephone interview given to the CSDU president Artak Kirakosian, said that all the material printed in the ‘Official bulletin’ could be easily located on Internet once there would be relevant government decision stipulating that.

The Government of Armenia has its website, which gives some information on government activities. Just placing the list of government decisions and amendments there would be very much appropriate. However, although the Parliament also has its website, its legislative content has not been updated since 1998...

Thus we can conclude that none of the above options would facilitate a free access for ordinary people. That makes people rely on individual officials to interpret certain clauses in official documents, which are, often times, ambiguous and biased. Publishing legal acts in official papers and making them accessible to general population would narrow conduits for misconduct by public officials since the population would be directly informed about the most important issues and legislation pieces pertaining to them.
It is quite uncommon for ordinary people to read legislative documents. So, another relevant and necessary issue would be to publish the interpretation of legislation directly concerning the general population. It might be a good idea to provide them with the explanation of those issues most affecting their lives. For example, every year the government decides on the list of diseases for and according to which the hospitals should provide free medical treatment (i.e. paid from the state budget). Despite the fact that this decision specifically mentions social groups eligible for state support, even those parts of the document are not published by the press. As a result, people from vulnerable social groups often do not apply for medical treatment since they are unaware that the costs will be covered by the state.

In order to obtain information by written or oral request, one should know several factors:

• Appropriate procedure
• Appropriate department in charge of that procedure
• Corresponding mechanism
• Appropriate legislation
• Professional cadre

In April-October 2001, the CSDU studied situation with access to information in the public sector of Armenia. CSDU conducted surveys in ministries and 60 NGOs, organized focused group discussions with representatives of NGOs as well as had interviewed state officials responsible for public relations in the ministries. The study showed that there is one area to be in a more or less orderly shape: the relations between government agencies and the press, as indicated by existence of press departments in all of the ministries. Meanwhile, only 11 out of 21 requests for information submitted to ministries resulted in responses. Responses came from departments/persons apparently having no formal responsibility for public relations in the ministries. Departments responsible for public relations have different name, such as press secretary or even social dialogue division. In the meantime, their goals are very similar: present the social and economic policies of the state and process of their implementation to public. From that standpoint, it would be useful to have similar and uniform departments responsible for doing public relations (uniformity should be in the naming and organizational structure—as uniform are for example economic, legal, financial departments in different government bodies). It is also necessary to enhance policy for processing official document in ministries, as well as to regulate such issues as signatory and assignment powers in ministries.

As for professionalism of staff, an employee at the PR department should not only be professional but, essentially, to have good language and articulating skills in order to communicate with people effectively. Professional training courses for the PR staff is, thus, vitally important. It would enable preparing a new type of state bureaucrat, who would watch over the state interests, being aware at the same time of his responsibilities and citizen rights.

NGOs play important role in maintaining good state-society relationships. The early stages of NGO community formation in Armenia are over, and cooperation of NGOs and government structures can be mutually beneficial. It is extremely important to develop mechanisms for involving NGOs in the government decision-making allowing them somewhat influence that process. Equally important is to make the government to use the potential of NGOs in conducting policy analysis and monitoring studies.