YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, NOYAN TAPAN. The seminar being held on February 8-9 in Yerevan is dedicated to the subject of "Legislative Regulation of Information Freedom and Practice in Armenia." The event was organized by the Committee of Protection of Freedom of Speech and Council of Europe. It was mentioned at the seminar that CE countries have adopted the CE standards of information freedom legislative regulation, the convention to be created on the basis of them is being worked out at present. RA NA Science, Education, Culture and Youth Affairs Standing Committee Chairwoman Hranuch Hakobian stated that there is a necessity to work out some provisions concerning mechanisms of application of RA law "On Freedom of Information" adopted in 2003. For instance, she considers that the requirement of obligatory knowledge of the above-mentioned law must be put forward during the civil servants attestation. State documents must be available for all citizens. Declaring this, Boyana Urmova, Special Representative of Council of Europe Secretary General in Armenia, stated that in this case the citizens will be also able to control press publications. Tonie Minich, Assistant on Norwegian Representation Legal and Internal Affairs to EU, among CE standards of information freedom legislative regulation attached importance to state documents' being public and transparent at the same time mentioning that transparency must be limited proceeding from considerations of not impeding investigation of commercial, national security or criminal cases. According to T.Minich, there shouldn't be differentiation of journalists and citizens in the issue of freedom of information: information should be provided in a reasonable term and without inquiring for what purpose it's required. And the refusal to provide information must be written and motivated.

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