“Part One of the Article 44 of the General Administrative Code will be sustained and personal information on public officials will again be available,” the given promise was made to the NGOs at the Parliamentary Legal Committee. 

17 May a meeting was held in the Legal Committee and the following non-governmental organizations participated in it:  Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA), Information Freedom Development Institute, International Transparency Georgia and Coalition for Media Advocacy.  Government at the meeting was represented by the Ministry of Justice and the Public Registry.  The meeting was initiated by the Chairman of the Legal Committee of Parliament Kakhaber Anjaparidze.  Anjaparidze promised that the Draft Law will be corrected in the nearest days and the renewed draft will be placed for voting in second hearing at 22 May Plenary Session of Parliament. 

NGOs protested against the abolishment of the Article 44 of the General Administrative Code Draft Law.  NGOs believed that abolishment of the Article that regulates publicity of personal information of public officials would decrease the transparency of public establishments and would worsen the situation. 

Government believed that personal information about public officials was included in their declarations so no additional details would be interesting for the public. 

Finally government agreed to sustain only the Part One of the Article 44.  GYLA lawyer Tatuli Todua, who actively participated in the discussion of the Draft Law, says that right the Part One was the most important.  The NGOs have not yet received the corrected version of the Draft. 

“The promise was made.  I hope they will keep the promise and we will receive the new version of the document,” Tatulia Todua stressed.  She believes that media played significant role in making the government consider the request of the NGOs. 

“We must greatly thank journalists for the success in this case.  They showed big interest and publicized our ideas.  We believe this result came thanks to the reaction by media,” Tatuli Todua said.