The President’s latest draft law proposing a “counterintelligence unit for protecting the interests of the State in the sphere of information security” is dangerously similar to practice already seen among Ukraine’s post-Soviet neighbours, most notoriously, Belarus

The authorities still do not provide substantive answers to information requests and restrict access to State registers of court rulings and property rights

The District Administrative Court in Kyiv has rejected the civil suit brought by journalist Mustafa Nayem against the Verkhovna Rada Office for refusing to provide copies of National Deputies’ declarations for 2010

Students who came to show support for Professor Suprun who is facing charges over research into the fate of Germans deported to Arkhangelsk carried banners reading: “Maybe there’s been enough repression?”; “Is it really 1937 again?” and “Free History!”

The Security Service during the first 9 months of 2011 issued 94 protocols over administrative offences regarding infringements of legislation on State secrets

The Agreement binds Post-Soviet countries to agree policy on declassifying Soviet archives, and there were fears that Ukraine would also sign it. This could have meant some material being classified again

The appeal against the ban on a picket outside the President’s reportedly sumptuous residence Mezhyhirya on 6 June 2011 was rejected without the claimant being informed of the hearing at all. The peaceful picket had been planned to remind the President of his promise made a year earlier to show the residence to journalists

Historians are concerned at news of an agreement which binds post-Soviet countries to agree policy on declassifying Soviet archives, and fear that some material could be classified again.

The Constitutional Court has refused to provide details about the number of judges who voted to reinstate the 1996 Constitution, as well as the number who voted for Anatoly Holovin as CCU President

The Public Council attached to the State Committee on Television and Radio Broadcasting is categorically opposed to provisions in a draft law which would provide the Security Service with additional power of control over access to official information and documents containing such information

Marina Nikolayeva decided to check out how the Public Information Act and its norm on income declarations work by examining those of Kharkiv Governor Dobkin and Mayor Kernes. The comparison between their statements and reality makes shocking reading

Since 9 May 2011 when the Law on Access to Public Information came into force, administrative courts have considered 24 civil claims over failure to provide response. In 20 of them the courts found in favour of the claimant

As feared, parliament has undermined a vital mechanism for ensuring public monitoring of court rulings by allowing judges to themselves determine which court rulings will be entered in the “Single Register of Court Rulings”

The Internet publication “Ukrainska Pravda” is to try via the court to ascertain how much President Yanukovych paid for his land at Mezhyhirya.

The first is over rulings of domestic courts in cases of the Media Law Institute against the Verkhovna Rada over the latter’s failure to answer information requests. The second is over court rulings in the case against the Constitutional Court regarding refusals to provide information

The Verkhovna Rada on 6 October passed at its first reading a draft law which would determine which court rulings are entered in the Register of Court Rulings. Responsibility for the selection would be vested with the Council of Judges

Pechersky District Court decisions in the trial of Oleksy Pukach over the killing of Georgy Gongadze are not on open access. According to Ukrainian legislation only the protocols of court hearings into the Pukach case are classified as secret

The Cabinet of Ministers has supported a draft Law on Amendments to Some Legislative Acts on Access to Information on Restricted Access. According to the State Committee on Radio and Television Broadcasting, it drew up the document together with the Security Service

A survey carried out by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation has found that over half the population (52%) know nothing about the Law on Access to Information voting for the Party of the Regions feel little need to make formal information requests, unlike supporters of Tymoshenko;s BYUT or VO Svoboda;

If the Law on Access to Public Information is just a decoration designed to hoodwink the public and the international community then it is a complete waste of time. If interested parties have to resort to the courts to gain the information the law entitles them to then it is seriously flawed