’Ukrainska Pravda sues Yanukovych

The Internet publication ’Ukrainska Pravda has filed a civil suit against President Yanukovych with the High Administrative Court over the President’s refusal to reveal which joint stock company he is founder of. Ukrainska Pravda will be represented in court by Roman Holovenko from the Institute for Mass Information.

On 4 June 2010 Ukrainska Pravda submitted an information request to the President’s Administration asking which company Yaukovych is a shareholder of. The President’s Administration refused to provide the information claiming it went beyond that which is public information. A second request was also turned down.

Ukrainska Pravda considers information about shares etc held by the President to be open and subject to the requirements regarding information requests, as set out in the Laws on Fighting Corruption, on Information and on the Public Service.  They assert that the public’s need to know outweighs Yanukovych’s interests as a private individual to protect the information.

From a report at: http://imi.org.ua/content/view/179886/42/