Minister Maslarova awarded the AIP Shame anti-award
Sofia, 2 October 2007 – On September 28 - the International Day of the Right to Know - the Access to Information Programme, an NGO involved in defending the right of citizens to access to public information, gave out its annual awards.
The seven categories in 2007 were:
Category 1. Citizen who most actively used the Access to Information Act
The award went to Rosko Simov, who won a court case against the mayor of the Shumen municipality for faiing to provide access to a contract between the municipality and a trade company.
Runner-up awards were also given out to Georgi Shumakov for his efforts in supplying institutions with the technical means to provide information (paper, scanner and handbook on the application of the Access to Information Act), and Milen Chavrov who used the act to receive information from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Healthcare Ministry and other institutions about people with disabilities.
Category 2. NGO which most actively exercised its right to access to information
The Golden Key award went to the Razgrad NGO Center for its long and effective use of the Access to Information Programme and litigation for better transparency of the activities of local government. A runner up award was given to the expert group for transparent and effective cultural policy.
Category 3. Best journalistic campaign on access to information
The Golden Key award went to Aleksenia Dimitrova from the 24 Chassa daily for her use of the Access to Information Act in her journalistic work, for filing lawsuits for access to information and for the purposes of her journalistic investigations.
Category 4. Institution with best organisation for providing information to the public
The award went to the Commission for the Protection of Competition.
Category 5. Best corporate web site from the point of view of the Access to Information Act
The Golden Key award went to Sliven municipality.
Category 6. Institution which does not implement its obligations under the Access to Information Act and violates citizens’ rights under the Access to Information Act The Golden Padlock award went to the State Agency for Information Technologies and Communications for proposing a draft act for amendments to the Access to Information Act justified with the need to transpose Directive 2003/98/EC. The proposals would have made the act worse.
Category 7. Most absurd practice for providing information
The Tied Key Award went to the Headquarters of the Bulgarian Army for stating that information about the purpose of tanks dug into the ground near the villages of Golyamo Sharkovo, Lesovo and Ruzhitsa – which have been abandoned there since the Second World War – is classified information and “their publication in the media is prohibited”.
The Shame Award in this category went to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy for a letter sent by Minister Emilia Maslarova in which she informed the chair of the National Audit Office that an employee of the National Audit Office filed applications for access to information in his working hours and engaged “to no use the time” of employees of the MLSP, the Agency for Social Assistance, the State Child Protection Agency.
Source: Access to Information Programme