Regional courts uphold taxpayers’ right to know

The Regional Press Development Institute has reported two cases where the court has allowed legal suits against refusals by the authorities to provide information

Ludmilla Opryshko, RPDI lawyer, reports that the Ternopil City District Court for the Ternopil oblast has allowed a suit brought by the civic organization Pravda against the Butsniv Village Council and its head.  Legal assistance was provided by RPDI  as part of an Internews project,  

The Village Council in September 2012 refused to provide information about allocation of plots of land.

The court ordered it to provide the information and copies of the decisions taken at the 14^th session of the Village Council.

This is the second recent case of conflict between Pravda and the Butsniv Village Council. In September last year Taras Dyachenko, journalist and member of Pravda, was not allowed into a session of the Council.

The same court in January this year allowed the journalist’s complaint against the law enforcement bodies’ refusal to initiate a criminal investigation under Article 171 of the Criminal Code (obstructing a journalist carrying out his or her work).

A Rivne journalist has also appealed against the refusal of a department within the Rivne Regional Council.  Antonina Torbich had asked for detailed information about procurement of a videoconference system which cost a fairly staggering 338 thousand UAH.  The Rivne District Administrative Court has found the refusal to be against the law.