IJC Launches: “Access to Information Without "Barricades” – the First Practical Guide for Public Officers and Journalists

The Independent Journalism Center has launched the first practical guide for public officers and journalists: “Access to information without ‘barricades’.” It has been produced by IJC experts and includes several analyses and recommendations in order to optimize the legal framework concerning access to information, as well as practical advice on how to efficiently collaborate with the representatives of the two camps – journalists and communicators.

The authors of the guide, Sorina Stefarta and Irina Perciun, offer some recommendations and advice from journalists to communicators and vice versa. Thus, journalists will find in the guide how to correctly request official information, who information providers are, what they should do when information costs and how they should proceed if the answer of a public officer is No. In their turn, communicators will find useful information about how to ensure active, correct and timely informing of journalists, when they have the right to restrict access to information, how to efficiently manage official websites, how to avoid and manage crises, etc.

The event was attended by journalists, public officers from various state structures and civil society representatives. The attendees appreciated the appearance of this guide and underlined the idea that both journalists and public officers are in citizens’ service and access to information is a fundamental right that cannot be restricted.

The guide will be distributed electronically and will also appear on www.media-azi.md

The guide was produced as part of “Strengthening the legal framework on mass media in Moldova” project implemented by the IJC with the financial support of Civil Rights Defenders, Sweden.

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