Ombudsman Does Not Enforce Law on Obtaining Information

Baku/19.03.21/Turan: The Office of the Ombudsman of Azerbaijan expressed its readiness to assist Turan in receiving a response to the information request, which was sent to the Chairman of the Board of the State Agency for Health Insurance (SAHI) Zaur Aliyev.

If you do not receive a response to the information request from the owner of the information within the time limit established by law, you can re-apply to the Ombudsman's Office, the head of the Ombudsman's Office Aydin Safikhanli said in an official letter on March 19.

Safikhanli points out that according to Article 12.1 of the Law on Obtaining Information, an information request is provided in the shortest possible time, no more than 7 working days.

Turan News Agency is trying to get a response to the request from March 12, that is, 7 days or 5 working days. But in the laws on the media, on freedom of information, and on obtaining information, it is clearly stated that the answer must be provided as soon as possible. And Safikhanli himself notes this.

For example, article 24.2. of the Law on obtaining information states: If during this period the information can lose efficiency, then the response to the request should follow immediately, and if this is not possible, then no later than 24 hours.

I applied to the SAHI and the Ombudsman not as a citizen Mehman Aliyev, but as the director of a news agency with the aim of writing a socially significant article on the problem of the vaccine AstraZeneca. Seven days have passed and I have not been able to write the article, while the whole world is talking about this problem and the use of the vaccine has been suspended. At the same time, Azerbaijan has an agreement on the supply of this vaccine. And we do not know whether it has been delivered or whether it is being applied or will be applied.

The answer from the Ombudsman Office cannot be considered satisfactory, since it does not ensure the legal rights of journalists. The Ombudsman has to reconsider his interpretation of the law not in favor of officials, but citizens. Where is it stated that the ombudsman should only intervene after 7 days? I pointed out the problem of non-compliance with the law and it is obvious, Mehman Aliyev noted.  —0—