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MEDIA WATCHDOG: MONITORING OF STATE BODIES' WEBSITES REVEALS OVERALL FALL IN INFORMATION TRANSPARENCY LEVEL
SOCIETY | 18.07.14 | 09:54
http://armenianow.com/society/56163/armenia_monitoring_information_government_bodies_w ebsites
GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
The Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression (CPFE) has reported
preliminary results of the official monitoring sites showing that
the level of information transparency of government websites has
mainly decreased.
With assistance from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, from May 2014
the CPFE conducted a regular monitoring of the official websites of 44
state bodies to evaluate the level of their information transparency.
CPFE Chairman Ashot Melikyan presented the preliminary results at a
press conference on Thursday. He said that even though such monitoring
has been conducted since 2010, since 2013 it has been implemented
according to improved methodology that was developed by the St.
Petersburg-based Institute for Information Freedom Development.
Thus, the rating list of websites of ministries, departments and
government agencies is topped by the official website of the Ministry
of Territorial Administration, whose transparency is estimated at
89.48 percent, but its transparency also decreased as compared to
last year. In 2013, the transparency of the official website of the
Ministry of Territorial Administration was assessed at 96.20 percent.
According to the monitoring data, the State Nuclear Safety Regulatory
Committee's website has the lowest transparency level - 17.10 percent,
as compared to 19.17 percent in 2013.
According to this rating, out of 34 ministries and departments only six
have improved their website transparency: the Ministry of Agriculture
(67.74 percent instead of 44.82 percent in 2013); the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs (52.48 percent, instead of 49.14 percent); the Diaspora
Ministry (48.90 percent, instead of 42.72 percent); the Ministry of
Urban Development (48.23 percent instead of 42.96 percent), etc..
Progress was also reported for the website of the Head Department of
Civil Aviation (44.75 percent, instead of 41.88 percent), the website
of the Audit Chamber (31.10 percent, instead of 30.97 percent),
the State Property Management Department's website (27.04 percent,
instead of 25.35 percent) and the website of the National Television
and Radio Commission (24.30 percent, instead of 21.09 percent).
The rating, however, does not include the website of the National
Security Service (NSS), considering that by its essence the NSS is
a closed structure, where a lot of information is considered to be
a state secret, so it was considered that the NSS website is not
comparable to the websites of other state bodies.
According to the ratings of the websites of regional governor's
offices, only the website of the Aragatsotn governor's office has
improved its status - from the 45.86-percent transparency level in
2013 to 68.61 percent this year. The results of all the rest regional
administrations are lower in 2014.
The CPFE head said that 152 criteria have been used in the website
monitoring this year, instead of 146 criteria applied before. Of
them, 120 criteria concern the contents and 26 the technical aspects
of website operation. Thus, the presence or absence of information,
integrity of information, its relevance and accessibility have been
assessed.
CPFE lawyer Olga Safaryan says that during the previous monitoring
there was no criterion on the data of persons responsible for
website contents. Meanwhile, according to the government decision,
this information should be posted on websites and they also added
this to the general criteria. However, according to the lawyer, no
data of persons responsible for website contents is yet available at
any of the 44 websites that have been reviewed.
According to Melikyan, the new methodology allows the websites to
correct the shortcomings that have been revealed during the monitoring
and it is possible that during the presentation of the final results
some of the websites will improve their standing.
"Those responsible for the websites of state bodies will have an
opportunity to study in detail the evaluations of CPFE experts and
improve their sites in cooperation with them," he said, adding that
the stage of such cooperation will begin on August 1 and will continue
until September 15, after which the final monitoring results will
be published.
SOCIETY | 18.07.14 | 09:54
http://armenianow.com/society/56163/armenia_monitoring_information_government_bodies_w ebsites
GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
The Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression (CPFE) has reported
preliminary results of the official monitoring sites showing that
the level of information transparency of government websites has
mainly decreased.
With assistance from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, from May 2014
the CPFE conducted a regular monitoring of the official websites of 44
state bodies to evaluate the level of their information transparency.
CPFE Chairman Ashot Melikyan presented the preliminary results at a
press conference on Thursday. He said that even though such monitoring
has been conducted since 2010, since 2013 it has been implemented
according to improved methodology that was developed by the St.
Petersburg-based Institute for Information Freedom Development.
Thus, the rating list of websites of ministries, departments and
government agencies is topped by the official website of the Ministry
of Territorial Administration, whose transparency is estimated at
89.48 percent, but its transparency also decreased as compared to
last year. In 2013, the transparency of the official website of the
Ministry of Territorial Administration was assessed at 96.20 percent.
According to the monitoring data, the State Nuclear Safety Regulatory
Committee's website has the lowest transparency level - 17.10 percent,
as compared to 19.17 percent in 2013.
According to this rating, out of 34 ministries and departments only six
have improved their website transparency: the Ministry of Agriculture
(67.74 percent instead of 44.82 percent in 2013); the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs (52.48 percent, instead of 49.14 percent); the Diaspora
Ministry (48.90 percent, instead of 42.72 percent); the Ministry of
Urban Development (48.23 percent instead of 42.96 percent), etc..
Progress was also reported for the website of the Head Department of
Civil Aviation (44.75 percent, instead of 41.88 percent), the website
of the Audit Chamber (31.10 percent, instead of 30.97 percent),
the State Property Management Department's website (27.04 percent,
instead of 25.35 percent) and the website of the National Television
and Radio Commission (24.30 percent, instead of 21.09 percent).
The rating, however, does not include the website of the National
Security Service (NSS), considering that by its essence the NSS is
a closed structure, where a lot of information is considered to be
a state secret, so it was considered that the NSS website is not
comparable to the websites of other state bodies.
According to the ratings of the websites of regional governor's
offices, only the website of the Aragatsotn governor's office has
improved its status - from the 45.86-percent transparency level in
2013 to 68.61 percent this year. The results of all the rest regional
administrations are lower in 2014.
The CPFE head said that 152 criteria have been used in the website
monitoring this year, instead of 146 criteria applied before. Of
them, 120 criteria concern the contents and 26 the technical aspects
of website operation. Thus, the presence or absence of information,
integrity of information, its relevance and accessibility have been
assessed.
CPFE lawyer Olga Safaryan says that during the previous monitoring
there was no criterion on the data of persons responsible for
website contents. Meanwhile, according to the government decision,
this information should be posted on websites and they also added
this to the general criteria. However, according to the lawyer, no
data of persons responsible for website contents is yet available at
any of the 44 websites that have been reviewed.
According to Melikyan, the new methodology allows the websites to
correct the shortcomings that have been revealed during the monitoring
and it is possible that during the presentation of the final results
some of the websites will improve their standing.
"Those responsible for the websites of state bodies will have an
opportunity to study in detail the evaluations of CPFE experts and
improve their sites in cooperation with them," he said, adding that
the stage of such cooperation will begin on August 1 and will continue
until September 15, after which the final monitoring results will
be published.