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.