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Digital policy in Armenia: Transparency in times of crisis
Armenia has experienced war, crises and revolution in recent years. Meanwhile, freedom of information laws remained in place. Activists and media representatives report on a site visit
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Armenia has experienced war, crises and revolution in recent years. Meanwhile, freedom of information laws remained in place. During a site visit, activists and media professionals from the Caucasus country report on how they are committed to transparency and what they hope for the future.
In Germany, the federal government wants to drastically restrict the Freedom of Information Act. No more right to information for media and other organizations? Applications only if there is a “legitimate interest”? Fees of several thousand euros? Journalists and NGOs in Armenia shake their heads in disbelief: This is unimaginable in the young democracy of the Caucasus republic. There is still room for improvement in government transparency.
Even in times of crisis, the foundations of freedom of information are not shaken in Armenia. And there were many crises: in 2018, nationwide protests led to the government resigning. It broke in 2020https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/krieg_um_Bergkarabakh_2020">Conflictaround Nagorno-Karabakhwith Azerbaijan and thousands lost their lives in the subsequent wars. The first took place in June 2026https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/wahl-armenien-suche-100.html"...ary scheduled electionshas been taking place in the country for almost ten years.
“The Armenian Freedom of Information Law was introduced following a civil society initiative,” says Liana Doydoyan, co-founder of thehttps://foi.am/en/about-foica/general-information">Freedomof Information Center of Armenia(FOICA). In the early 2000s, civil society created a draft based on international best practices. After some persuasion with the MPshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_to_public_information_in_Armenia">w...the law passed in 2003– three years before there was a similar regulation at the federal level in Germany. “When it was introduced, it was one of the most advanced sets of rules in the world,” Doydoyan continued. In the meantime, after 23 years without any major changes, she would like to see an update to the regulations in order to take developments in the area of digital technologies into account.
Good reform plans – on paper
The government under Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has announced ambitious reform, anti-corruption and democratization projects. This would also affect how transparent the government becomes and what access the population has to administrative data: As part of the international Open Government Partnership (OGP), the country has committed to creating a uniform legal framework for open data in the area of administrative digitization and open data by 2027.
Liana Doydoyan from FOICA is skeptical: “On paper we have many good reform plans, but so far there are no measurable results.” And she's not the only one who doubts. Now in his third term in office, there is increasing criticism of how announced reforms actually arehttps://www.boell.de/en/2026/04/29/armenia-election-what-kind-democracy-...populist ruling Pashinyanbe implemented.
There is currently no state open data portal in Armenia. Instead, civil society steps in: open data activist Ivan Begtin and other volunteers leadhttps://opendata.am/">atOpendata.ampublic sources together. Begtin says: “The government has not yet responded to the suggestion of simply continuing to use our community portal free of charge.” There is a lack of awareness of data and digital infrastructures as well as skills within the administration. Most government information has to be laboriously read directly from the websites or is available somewhere as Excel data. "A big problem is the fragmented IT landscape in Armenia. Many of the services were funded at different times by different foreign donors. There is no uniform architecture," Begtin continued.
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Since the so-calledhttps://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_in_Armenien_2018">SamtenenrevolutionThe European Union is one of the country's largest financial supporters. The EU is currently holding talks with the Armenian government about visa facilitation, which is seen as an important step towards a deeper partnership. There is already an NGO ecosystem in the country in which organizations, for example, combat disinformation, advocate for minorities or, like the freedom of information organization FOICA, offer training for administrative employees and act as a political watchdog.
Polarized civil society
The polarization of Armenian societyhttps://oc-media.org/armenia-is-making-it-harder-to-become-a-resident-he...However, it is also increasingly evident in the NGO landscape. For example, criticism of the government is equated with political opposition. Instead of dealing with the content, they are dismissed as narratives controlled by pro-Russian interests or the oligarchs of the previous governments. Other NGOs see Pashinyan's populist politics as an erosion of democratic principles, but support him due to the lack of real alternatives.
Civil society engagement remains an important factor that reaches across the divide. In September, the Ministry of Finance statedhttps://arka.am/en/news/economy/armenian-citizens-may-be-allowed-to-send...planAccording to which Armenian citizens can pay part of their income tax directly to NGOs, media or political parties.
Especially independent media likehttps://hetq.am/en">Hetq,https://civilnet.am/en">CivilNetorhttps://factor.am/en/">FactorTVare currently dependent on foreign donors. Paywalls or similar monetization of journalism are hardly to be found in the Armenian media landscape. This makes the treatment of investigative journalists like Vahe Sarukhanyan from Hetq by official bodies all the more critical. “As a journalist, if you ask critical questions, you will quickly be branded as part of the opposition - but we are simply exposing the politicians' wrongdoing,” said Sarukhanyan. He often uses freedom of information requests for his research and has found that it has become more difficult to obtain useful information this way in recent years.
However, there is no discussion in Armenia about restricting the law due to possible threats to critical infrastructure like in Germany. “National security is brought into play when requests are rejected, especially in relation to information relating to the war with Azerbaijan,” says Sarukhanyan.
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For those asking questions and seeking information, a bigger problem than complete secrecy is the quality of the answers and data sets. This is also confirmed by Gevorg Tosunyan from the news portal CivilNet: "The public databases, for example on the actual owners of companies, make life difficult. We have also been waiting in vain for an update with the electronic cadastre for years." If authorities refuse to publish information, legal recourse is available. However, this could take years in the overburdened Armenian judicial system.
"In some cases, public pressure simply helps. If the state doesn't want to give me the data, I write a post about it on Facebook - and then the officials quickly claim that it was just a misunderstanding and give me the data anyway," Gevorg Tosunyan continues. The transparency organization FOICA also publishes one every yearhttps://foi.am/en/freedom-of-information/foi-black-list">Negative listwith public information withheldand has one this year for International Freedom of Information Dayhttps://foi.am/announcements/39719">Catalog of demandspublished. Despite all these flaws, freedom of information in Armenia is one of the country's democratic foundations - even in times of crisis.
Dénes Jäger works for the Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland e.V. in the area of policy and open data and is a freelance journalist.
Transparency note: The research is part of a journalistic exchange program run by Deutsche Gesellschaft e. V. emerged.
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