National register of informational resources: another absurd invented by the power

On 5 May 2003 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine issued Resolution No. 259-p “On the approval of the Conception of forming of the system of national electronic informational resources”, but the public did not notice the Resolution. Yet, on 31 December 2003 the Cabinet of Ministers approved the measures for the realization of this Conception. The problem is that not only state resources are regarded as national, but also private ones.

The Conception does not contain the clear definition of national informational resources. In particular, it reads: “national resources, independently of their contents, form, time and place of creation, form of property, are applied for satisfaction of the needs of citizens, society and the state. National resources include state, communal and private resources”.

The authors of the Conception do not understand the difference between telecommunications (or the information carriers) and the information as such. So, it is incomprehensible what the legislators meant, when they compiled this document. However, it seems that the matter concerns the information, because the word “contents” was used. Then it turns out that any file created in my personal computer is a national resource and MUST BE INCLUDED TO THE REGISTER. Yet, from the other side, the private persons do not belong to the structure of national resources determined by the Conception.

Moreover, the Conception states that the system of national resources (in particular, the files in my computer) is necessary for the social and economic development of the state. Here I am recollecting the old good Soviet times: everything for the sake of the state!

Yet, this is not the whole story. The Conception also reads: “The inclusion of non-state resources to the National register promotes the forming, use and protection of these resources”. Well, I do not remember, when I saw such crooked logics in normative acts. Just imagine that the inclusion of the list of the books contained in your home library to the national register will help you to protect your library!

The Conception also envisages the certification of national resources after their inclusion to the national register. But is it possible to certify information? Or maybe all information carriers will be certified?

More than ten ministries and agencies are engaged into the realization of this nonsensical plan, and none of these agencies noticed the drawbacks of the Conception.

Why our government, which is unable to regulate even the state resources, worries about non-state ones, although the state have the right to meddle into this sphere only in the cases stipulated by law, when the evident danger exists to the rights of other persons or to the public order? In all other cases the inviolability of my informational resources is guaranteed by the scores of international and domestic legal acts on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The idea of such register could appear only in the country, where the officials do not realize the difference between the state and the civil society. The state still cannot understand that not everything that is located inside the state is owned by it, and that there are some spheres of life, which are protected from the interference of the state. Besides, now everything that is called national is, in fact, state. For example a national university is, for 99%, dependent on the state. This concerns the national resources too. Well, nobody would say that the private property is national, so why it is possible then the matter concerns privately owned information?

Other conceptual mistake lies in the fact that now, in the epoch of the Internet and globalization, the information has no frontiers, and it may not be called a national resource at all. The state can only regulate the telecommunications, which is realized by the Law of Ukraine “On telecommunications”. And the contents of information may not be regulated under any circumstances. Well, we live in Ukraine, but not in the North Korea.

Secretariat of the Council of Ukrainian human rights protecting organizations