FOI Litigation in Bulgaria

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WWW.AIP-BG.ORG
Access to Information Programme
FOI Litigation in Bulgaria
Alexander Kashumov, Head of the legal team AIP
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Criteria for Free Legal Help in Court Cases

• Provisions to be challenged
• Public interest in information
• Necessity for legal aid.

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Forms of Free Legal Help in Court Cases

• Counseling
• Preparing the application and submissions
• Representation in the court
• Non- legal activities monitoring of cases, media
  campaigning.

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FOI Court Cases

• Assisted by AIP more than 90
• In the Supreme Administrative Court about 130
• Monitored 18.

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FOI cases 2004 - 2005
WWW.AIP-BG.ORG
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Requests

• Related to
• contracts between the gov and companies
• State audit reports
• Documents classified before 1989
• Data of public officials or civil servants
  property, expenses etc.
• Public services (e.g. health care)
• Reports on/ doc exposing wrongdoings
• Environmental matters (incl. PHARE, ISPA, EIB
  etc.).

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Media coverage of FOI litigation Jan May 2005

• 45 Radio and TV shows
• 27 Articles in newspapers

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Positive Effects of Litigation

• It is part of the AI campaigning (civic
  education)
• FOI litigation becomes fashionable (journalists
  and MPs readily sue the Gov)
• Citizens inspired to refer to court alone
• Traditional fields of secrecy or privacy are
  challenged successfully
• Courts give interpretation of the law and
  guidelines for
• Public administration becomes interested in
  trainings and the court practice

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Problems

• Court decisions not binding the executives, but
  sending the case back
• No execution of court decisions
• Bad interpretation of the law
• Reluctance to go deeply into the three-part test
  examination of exemptions

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Remedy for problems

• Litigation, litigation and litigation
• Training for judges, awareness of standards
• Changes in law (only if no other way is
  available). Carefully seeking to foresee the
  consequences.