During 2012, IDFI (Institute for Development of Freedom of Information) expanded its advocacy activities and included the following issues: monitoring of e-resources, access to information, information security, monitoring of social networks and exchanging international practice; Representatives of Institute have conducted meetings with Public Institutions, media representatives, took part in different conferences, seminars and discussions;

On March 2012, IDFI discussed the legislative proposal “On Information Security” and suggested comments about the draft proposal. There were two issues, which were more highlighted in the text: new regulatory norms to the access to public information and imposing additional mechanisms of state control over private sector;

On 27-28th of July, 2012 the seminar about freedom of information and access to official documents in Government bodies took place in the framework of “Democratic Government in Georgia” (G-3). IDFI took part in this meeting, which aimed to discuss the problems and challenges related to the freedom of information due to speak about the future plans for improving the existed situation;

IDFI was one of 12 NGOs, which joined to the coalition “Media for Advocacy” and aimed to improve media environment and protect the standards of freedom of expression. Coalition was actively involved in working on Open Government Partnership action plan. On December 14th, representatives of the coalition met Prime Minister of Georgia for discussing on-going processes in Georgia and future plans;

On October 25th, Institute for Development of Freedom of Information presented the results of the project related to monitoring of e-resources of legislative system; In the framework of the project official websites of 16 legislative bodies were monitored in order to assess transparency and quality of technical arrangement;

On December 26th IDFI conducted discussion with the representatives of Public Relations Department of Public Institutions. The meeting took place in the framework of the project “Development E-Participation in Georgia” and discussed importance of social networks for political engagement of the society;

In conclusion, the main idea of advocacy activities carried out throughout 2012 included evaluation of government activities in the field of access to information, providing them with recommendations about effective use of e-resources in governance;