A1+

CASES BROUGHT AGAINST NINE COMMUNITY HEADS
[03:45 pm] 26 January, 2007

In the court of the first instance of Shirak region nine cases have
been brought against the heads of the communities of Azatan, Shirak,
Lusaghbyur, Amasia, Voghji, Ardenis, Mets Sepasar, Poqr Sepasar, and
Horom. The NGOs which turned to the court yesterday demand to provide
the legislative ground of the freedom of information.

The problem is that on October 21-23, 2006, «Asparez» club of
journalists turned to all the 119 communities of the region of Shirak
asking for the copies of the budget of the years and the decisions
adopted by the community aldermen. By January 25, 2007, 52 of the
community heads have given no official answer to the request, seven of
them have given part of the information needed, and 60 have sent the
whole pack of information. Nevertheless, the majority of the
information has been received with serious violations of the period
stipulated by law.

The above mentioned nine communities are the ones which have not
answered the request in any way.