Source: 

http://www.aip-bg.org/images/RKD09/...

More than hundred people attended the 2009 Right to Know Day Awards Ceremony organized and held by Access to Information Programme (AIP) on 28 September in the Bulgarian News Agency, Sofia. The ceremony was broadcast live on Internet. More than 50 media – national and local – covered the event.

The awards committee selected the winners in the 7 categories out of 80 nominations. Awarded Citizens The Golden Key award for a citizen who has most actively exercised his right to information was given to Mr. Dimo Karabashev – a student from the New Bulgarian University who filed a lot of requests to obliged institutions to find out violation of safety technical requirements in Sofia public transport.

An Honorary Diploma was given to Ms. Kalina Pavlova, an architect from the town of Varna who raised an important issue for all citizens related to illegal construction of in the city park of the town.

Another diploma was given to a citizen from the town of Shumen. Mr. Rosko Simov was recognized for his persistency to force the Mayor to execute a court decision which obliged him to release the information.

Awarded NGOs A local NGO from the town of Varna was recognized as most actively exercising its right to information. The Association for Optimization of Justice and Administration SOPA (the abbreviation means “a club”) publishes extensively on its web site information received through the ATI law.

An Honorary Diploma was given to the Association of Parks in Bulgaria for active use of the APIA to seek for environmental information, for starting access to information litigation and extensive popularization of revealed wrongdoings.

Bulgarian Association for Encouraging Civil Initiatives, Burgas was also recognized with a diploma for active seeking in the preparation of local referenda, and for the preparation of the first report on access to information in the Municipality of Burgas.

Awarded Journalists Journalist Diyan Nikolov from Sega daily received the Golden Key award his investigation of misappropriation and wrongdoings related to the public procurements of the Ministry of Defense.

Honorary diplomas were given to: Ms. Pavlina Trifonova from 24 Hours daily for using actively the law to obtain information from the Council of Ministers, for litigating and covering the development of these cases in the media.

Ms. Zdravka Maslyankova - a journalist from the local newspaper Yantra dnes who uses the law to obtain information from local government bodies. On the base of several requests, she publishes about the preparation of the municipality for the winter period, an important issue for the local community.

Mr. Konstantin Karadjov from bTV for his “Ministers on Business Trip” shown in bTV Reporters which popularized the access law as a successful tool to find out wrongdoings.

Capital weekly as a media which has most systematically and efficiently popularized the right of access to information.

Awarded Institutions The Golden Key award for an institution was given to the Ministry of Finance. The nomination was made by a citizen who received a lot of copies of loan and procurement contracts requested by him within three years. Ministry of Finance established a good system of information management and developed its web site in line of the access law requirements.

The new Council of Ministers (after the parliamentary elections in July 2009) was recognized with an Honorary Diploma for making accessible online its legal information system. Minutes, protocols, decisions are already accessible online. It was recognized as an important step towards transparency. In 2001, AIP supported in court the first case of a journalist who had requested the minutes from a session of the Council of Ministers. In 2001, that information was refused.

The East-Aegean Sea River Basin Directorate, Plovdiv was recognized again (http://www.righttoknowday.net/ceremony08_eng.php), this time as having the most FOI friendly web-site. Besides the proactive publication of all information related to the activities of the institution, documents, and a register of info-requests, as well as a report on the implementation of the APIA it has created The Right to Know group in Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=137955008072).

Anti-Awards Two municipalities were recognized for violating citizens’ right to information. The Padlock this year was given to the Municipality of Razgrad for its systematical obstruction of citizens to obtain information, for overcharging for the release of documents, and for not maintaining the public registers in the municipality.

A Dishonorary Diploma was given to the Municipality of Varna for obstruction of citizens’ right to know.

For the first time ever, a representative of an institution recognized for giving the funniest answer in response to an information request was present at the ceremony and received publicly the Tied Key award. The PR officer from the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications received the award and promised that all information requested from the ministry would be provided. She expressed a desire the Ministry to be nominated for a positive award for the 2010 Right to Know Day Awards.

Supporters: The organization and holding of the 2009 Right to Know Day in Bulgaria is supported by a grant from the Trust for Civil Society in CEE. Presents to the winners were donated by Soft and Publishing CIELA and the wine for the party after the ceremony was donated by Damianitza JSC.

You can find more information about the ceremony at http://www.righttoknowday.net/ceremony_eng.php.

And pictures on AIP web site: http://www.aip-bg.org/rkd09picseng.html.