Foundation Institute for Information Freedom Development

The three-year grant to the Foundation “Institute for Information Freedom Development will support a project to promote access to information and media freedom in the Russian Federation. Improving access to information with regard to selected government websites, the project will monitor and evaluate the websites of law enforcement bodies (prosecutors, investigators, and police). Recent federal laws oblige government bodies to provide online information on their activities. However, according to research by the Freedom of Information Foundation, in 2011 official websites of all kinds met legislative requirements by no more than 43 percent on average. Currently, most official websites, and those of law enforcement bodies in particular, satisfy neither the legal requirements nor the demand from media and the public for information about their work. The proposed project will: 1) evaluate the level of online information provided by law enforcement bodies; 2) reveal key problems in the law governing online access to information; 3) put pressure on the law enforcement agencies to improve their ‘rating’; and 4) promote increased openness and compliance with existing legislation through strategic litigation. Foundation dollars will fund salaries in St. Petersburg and the regions, travel costs, computer-related costs, and communications. The project will advance Foundation strategy to support media rights in the Russian Federation, promoting access to information as a basic media right and a prerequisite for developing independent media in Russia.