On February 2 RA Administrative Court of Appeal secured the complaint of Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression regarding the ruling of court of first instance on CPFE’s suit versus National Commission on Television and Radio. As it has been reported, on February 21, 2011 the CPFE had inquired the NCTR to provide the application packages of the TV companies taking part in the broadcast licensing competitions, which were summed up in December 2010. The NCTR had answered that the information requested could be provided, with the exception of those documents that contained commercial secret. On April 11 CPFE brought a suit before the RA Administrative Court demanding to bind NCTR with fully providing the inquired information. On September 27 the court revoked the suit, on the grounds of Part 1 of Clause 1 of Article 8 of RA Law “On Freedom of Information”, according to which the provision of information may be denied if it contains state, official, bank, commercial secret (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, September 23-29, 2011).
The Administrative Court of Appeal canceled this ruling as ungrounded and redirected the suit for reconsideration by the same court. As the February 2, 2012 judgment of the Administrative Court of Appeal notes the court of first instance did not demand NCTR to provide facts that the information requested by the plaintiff contained a commercial secret.
