Ombudsman: The state guarantees access to information and,  ultimately, guarantees civilian supervision of the state

ArmInfo.In the professional  activities of a journalist, the state guarantees access to  information and, ultimately, guarantees civilian supervision of the  state. This is stated in the message of the Office of the Human  Rights Defender in connection with the increasing number of cases  when the state and local authorities did not respond to citizens'  requests.

According to the source, one of the most important activities of the  Human Rights Defender is to fulfill citizens' requests to state  structures and local self-government bodies in order to properly  respond to their problems. This aspect of the work also includes the  issue of providing answers to journalistic inquiries to these bodies.

The Ombudsman's main focus is primarily on increasing state  responsibility and ensuring communication between citizens and the  state. This also includes the monitoring of the practice of  responding to journalists' requests, since everyone is given the  right to access information.

The Office of the Human Rights Defender maintains separate statistics  on freedom of information in order to submit proposals for written  and oral complaints, if necessary. This area of work will continue to  be the focus of the Ombudsman. In particular, if in 2016, 38  complaints were received regarding the lack of responses to citizens'  appeals, in 2017 - 46, then in 2018 the number of complaints more  than doubled, reaching 109. If in 2016, the main part of complaints  concerned the Ministry of Defense, the apparatus Government and the  Investigative Committee, then in 2017 - the police, prosecutors, the  Investigative Committee, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of  Health.

From January to May 2018, the Defender received 45 complaints, most  of which concerned the police, the Ministry of Defense, the National  Archives of Armenia, and the government staff. Most of the 64  complaints from June to December 2018 were related to the Ministry of  Healthcare, Yerevan Municipality, the police, the Ministry of  Justice, including the penitentiary service.