A week after the Law on Access to Public Information came into force, amendments to the law on public procurement will considerably reduce the amount of information available in the vital area of public procurement and tenders

As part of a campaign to monitor implementation of the Law on Access to Public Information Stop Censorship is calling for information requests to be sent to all 450 Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada regarding their declarations of income

The expectation from prominent journalists that the public will most want to know where taxpayers’ money is going gives an indication (if any were needed) of why those in power have fought to the bitter end against vital laws on access to information and would appear to still be trying anything to stall them

With amendments which could have negated any positive reforms attempted to the last minute, there can be relief that the law has, as of 9 May 2011, entered into force intact Most of the subordinate legislation needed to make it work, however, has yet to be drawn up

Mayor Pohoryelov has attempted to ban a street action “Breakthrough to information!” on 10 May to mark the entry into force of the Law on Access to Public Information. The organizers cite the Constitution and law and will not change their plans

The Head of the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Speech, Andriy Shevchenko predicts that officials will sabotage the Law on Access to Public Information and warns that the subordinate legislation needed for it to work has not been prepared

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and Kharkiv Human Rights Group have addressed an open appeal to Volodymyr Lytvyn, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada regarding a proposed draft bill which could cancel all the positive innovations of this vital Law

Proposed amendments to the Law on Access to Public Information will negate any meaning to the law and destroy any confidence and trust in declarations about commitment to fighting corruption and achieving openness

The proposed amendments, they fear, would remove all the progressive changes leaving only the name so that the government could report that such a law had been passed

Representatives of Ukraine’s civil society, including cultural figures, journalists, intellectuals and others, have addressed an open letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, K. Hryshchenko with respect to his ministry’s presentation of a “Strategy for positioning the country abroad”

The case involves the refusal by the Constitutional Court to provide the legal opinions from law institutes cited in justifying its judgment in April 2010, overturning its own judgment 18 months before and finding the new coalition constitutional

Oleksandr Shapovalov, Head of the Kherson region civic organization Right to Life has won his claim in the court of appeal against the refusal of the Human Rights Ombudsperson, Nina Karpachova, to provide information about her work

The authorities in Kharkiv and seven other urban areas in the region found various pretexts for refusing to divulge what would hardly seem top secret information – their city plans

A court case all the way to the Supreme Court to wrench out of the Ternopil City Council information about decisions taken by its predecessors and of clear importance to the public

On 16 February the SBU [Security Service] yet again summoned historian and Director of the National Memorial Museum of Victims of the Occupation Regimes “Tyurma na Lonskoho” in Lviv, Ruslan Zabily for questioning

What should we expect and will the conditions for exercising the right to information really improve? We will examine the laws passed with regard, firstly, to removal of the significant flaws in the Law on Information, and secondly, with how they meet international standards

Deputies of the Saki City Council in the Crimea have in the last few days taken the unprecedented step of banning a local journalist from their session, and the city’s Mayor tried to have him physically removed from the meeting hall

One of the co-authors of the Law on Information, Roman Holovenko from the Institute for Mass Information, has responded to criticism of the new version of the Law

It would seem that the saga continues of a supposed “case against” journalist and human rights activist Dementiy Bily, who was pushed and beaten up for asserting the right of Kherson residents to hear their Mayor’s report on his activities

This follows months of procrastination and desperate negotiations to avoid total rejection of a crucial law. How likely it is that the law will be enforced remains to be seen