Epress.am News from Armenia
The Yerevan-based Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression, during the period Feb.–Apr. 2011, monitored the websites of state agencies in order to assess their level of information transparency. Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression President Ashot Melikyan met with journalists today to present the results of the committee’s findings.
“Information managed by state tribunals is not their property — it is public property. They are obliged to present it to the public. These sites have to serve as a complete source of information of the activities of state agencies for the citizens of the country,” he said.
According to Melikyan, the committee studied 39 sites overall, 24 of which were sites belonging to ministries and government-adjoining agencies, 10 were regional council (marzpetaran) sites and 5 were sites belonging to state governing bodies: the websites of the president, government, National Assembly, Constitutional Court and the Prosecutor General’s Offices.
The sites were monitored using 177 criteria, 150 of which were content-based and 27 were technical.
On the level of information transparency, the top three spots went to the RA Ministry of Transport and Communication at 46.96%, RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (45.85%) and the RA Ministry of Agriculture (40.30%).
Not included in this list was the website of the National Security Service (NSS) since, according to Melikyan, the NSS is essentially a closed agency where there are many state secrets. Neither is the Ministry of Emergency Situations website included in this report as it doesn’t have one (though it does operate the Emergency Channel Information Center site).
As for the websites of regional councils, the findings indicated that two of these — the sites of Gegharkunik and Ararat regions (marzes) — don’t open at all, though Melikyan stated that work in improving the situation was underway.
According to Melikyan, the monitoring results testify to the poor level of information transparency in the websites of Armenia’s state agencies. Another period of monitoring is expected in the second half of this year, he added.