10th Right to Know Day Awards Ceremony in Bulgaria!

The Right to Know Day Magnet produced by AIP for the 10th Right to Know Day Design: Delian Stefanov

Access to Information Programme (AIP) will hold the 10th Right to Know Day Awards Ceremony on 28 September 2012.

AIP is also marking the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Freedom of Information Advocates Network which happened on 28 September 2002 in Bulgaria when the participants in an international conference decided to celebrate the day as the Right to Know Day.

Every year since then, AIP is organizing and holding the Right to Know Day Awards ceremony joining the increasing global Freedom of Information community in the promotion of the right of access to information and open, transparent, and accountable Government.

After last year AIP opened the 2011 RKD Awards Ceremony with the song Breathe which was composed in dedication to the Right to Know Day, in 2012 AIP produced the Right to Know Day Magnet as a symbol of the ever-attracting power of the freedom of information.

The awards committee of AIP experts, journalists, publishers, and transparency experts is to select the winners of the 2012 Right to Know Awards out of 43 nominees in six different categories. Nominations, criteria, and information about past awardees are on the special web site: www.RightToKnowDay.net.

At the Right to Know Day Ceremony, AIP presents four awards and two anti-awards:

The Golden Key awards are given to citizens and NGOs who have actively exercised the right of access to information in public interest, and to journalists who use the access to information law for thorough investigations.

Public bodies which effectively implement the law and introduce good access to information practices are also recognized with the Golden Key award. In 2012, executive bodies’ active transparency was already rated by AIP: http://www.aip-bg.org/en/surveys/2012/204468/.

Тhe Padlock anti-awardfor an institution which does not fulfill its obligations and violates citizens’ right to information and the Tied Key anti-award for the funniest/ most absurd access to information decision enhance the raising awareness and educational effect of the Right to Know Day campaign.

The Right to Know Day campaign in Bulgaria is nationwide. AIP coordinators in the country, who are all journalists, assist the media campaign by publishing and broadcasting in local media. Posters, leaflets and promotion materials are also disseminated throughout all regions of Bulgaria. The August issues of AIP Monthly FOI electronic newsletter focused on the 10th Right to Know Day and the 10th anniversary of the FOIAnet and spread the FOI message to more than 2,300 subscribers.

The thirty-minute Right to Know Day documentary shows the history of the Right to Know Day ceremonies in Bulgaria and the positive effects from the right of access to information advocacy: http://righttoknowday.net/rkd_eng.php. 

 The 10th Right to Know Day Awards ceremony in Bulgaria will take place on September 28 at 12.00 a.m. (EET) at the Press Club of the Bulgarian News Agency. The ceremony will be broadcast live online at: http://www.bta.bg/bg/pressclub.

The organization and holding of the 2012 Right to Know Day in Bulgaria is supported by a grant from the America for Bulgaria Foundation within the project Responding to the New Demand for Freedom of Information.

For а third successive year, Company provides a present for one of the winners in the categories for Golden Key Awards.

Bulgaria also provides a present for a third year.

As in previoius years, Soft and Publishing and JSC kindly contribute to the celebration of the 2012 Right to Know Day.