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26 November 2014

Discussion - Internet as Human Right

Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) and Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Georgia will hold discussion – Internet as Human Right on December 6th.

25 November 2014

Georgia 2020 - Workshop in Kvareli

On 21-22-23rd of November three day workshop was organized in Kvareli, Hotel “Royal Batoni”, where participants of the competition of the active users of the Internet, who passed the next level of competition, took part. Representatives of the Government of Georgia (as coordinators of the implementation of the “Georgia 2020”) and the Ministry of Finance of Georgia (as the organizers of the drawing out of “Georgia 2020”) participated in workshop as well.

21 November 2014

Improving the Practice of Proactive Disclosure of Public Information

Within the auspices of the project, conducted during the period of September-October 2014 IDFI researched to what extent 133 public entities fulfilled their obligation deriving from The Decree on the Electronic Request and Proactive Disclosure of Public Information.

16 November 2014

IDFI Discussions in Regions

Discussions “In Control with Your Government” were delivered in the framework of the project “Enhancing E-skills for Controlling Government among Young People”.

7 November 2014

New Right to Information Law in Albania

On September 18th 2014 Albania adopted the new Freedom of Information Law, which replaced the legal act applicable in the country from 1999. The New Right to Information Law of Albania, is assessed by many experts as one of the most important steps taken towards transparency and accountability, bringing the legislation in line with the best international standards in the region and beyond. The most important changes introduced by the new legislation are listed in the post.

31 October 2014

The Number of Officials Prosecuted for Illegal Wiretapping is Still Unknown

In the year of 2014 IDFI has referred to the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, Investigations Service of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the request to provide us with the information on the number of investigations launched on the bases of articles 158 and 159 of the Criminal Code of Georgia. For the detailed ifnormation on the responces received please reffer to the full text of the post.

27 October 2014

Access to Information Rating at Georgian State Universities

In October 2013 IDFI renewed its project Public Information Database – www.opendata.ge with the financial support of Open Society Foundation Georgia. Within the auspices of the current project, IDFI has undertaken to assess the access to information practice in different public entities in Georgia. Similar to the activities performed during the previous project, IDFI continues to request information from public entities and assess their rating of access to information.
At this point, IDFI presents its research on the topic of access to information at state universities of Georgia.

16 October 2014

Georgian Parliament Renovation Costs

According to amendments made to Georgian constitution in 2009, Kutaisi has been named as the parliamentary city.

9 October 2014

Seminar on OGP with Journalists

IDFI and Ministry of Justice of Georgia calls journalists for participation in OGP workshop, which will be held on 11th of October at 12:00 (Club FrontLine Georgia, Lado Asatiani Street #62.

7 October 2014

The Rationale Behind Stricter Visa Regulations in Georgia

Until recently Georgia has exercised one of the most liberal migration policies in the world (visa free stay for up to 360 days, the possibility to apply for the visa on the directly on the border and etc), nevertheless it will not come as a surprise to state that the country has gradually started to adopt restrictive immigration policy. IDFI decided to look into the rationale of amending the migration policy, and on September 12th reffered to the government of Georgia with the FOI request to indicate the international agreements, as well as the research conducted and/or statistical data obtained based on which the reform was conducted. This article based on the official documents received from the government of Georgia, sums up the arguments of adopting a restrictive visa regime in Georgia and informs the reader on the process of adopting the applicable legislation.