Institute for Mass Information lawyer, Roman Holovenko believes that the Party of the Regions Deputies’ draft amendments are effectively an alternative bill to draft laws which have already passed their first reading

Two Party of the Regions National Deputies are proposing that parliament adopts not the draft Law on Access to Public Information, but draft amendments to a number of current laws which, they claim, will ensure access to information

Only 124 National Deputies voted on Tuesday for a draft law which envisages mandatory declaration of expenses by high-ranking public officials. A draft law on conflict of interests clearly conflicted with theirs also

The draft law in question would force officials at all levels to answer information requests within strict deadlines, and post information of public importance on the Internet. Despite fine words, politicians in the government and other public officials seem less than willing to pass such a vital bill

Volodymyr Yavorsky, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, considers that making historian Zabily’s case “top secret” is an attempt to restrict his right to defence and to avoid public scrutiny.

The draft law aimed at “ensuring transparency and openness of those with authority and creating mechanisms enabling each person access to public information”.gained one vote from a member of the Party of the Regions and none from the communists

Members of Stop Censorship stress the vital need for parliament to pass the Law on Access to Public Information

A month has passed since the events around historian Ruslan Zabily’s detention, yet the SBU have still not returned the material taken, nor have they terminated the criminal investigation over alleged plans to divulge state secrets

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.

The Ukrainian Catholic University is calling for a new mode of relations with the Security Service based on respect for university autonomy, free access for academic staff and students to archival material, freedom in interpreting material researched and researchers’ responsibility for academic honesty in the use of such material.

"Arresting Ukrainian historians for using Soviet-era documents is a radical change for the worse. It makes the Soviet past, and in particular the history of Stalinist repression of Ukrainians, appear to be a state secret"

The author analyzes the complex legal collision between the right of the public to receive archival documents about political repression and the right of those mentioned in the documents to keep secret events in their life which the documents mention

President Yanukovych has instructed that the National Memorial Museum of Victims of the Occupation Regimes “Tyurma na Lonskoho” in Lviv be passed from the SBU [Security Service] to the Institute of National Remembrance

114 Historians from 28 Ukrainian universities and academic institutions have issued a protest against the unlawful actions of the Security Service and call on the President, Prosecutor General and the Head of the Security Service to stop criminal prosecution of historians and prevent repressive measures against academics

Around 500 people have taken part in a protest outside the main office of the SBU against persecution of historian Ruslan Zabily. The protesters demanded the dismissal of the SBU management and that the process of declassified documents about the repressions and liberation movement in Ukraine, stopped by the new regime, be resumed

The treatment of Ruslan Zabily points to a reversion to regrettable and dangerous practices of the totalitarian past. We find this incident extremely worrying, especially in view of earlier illegitimate uses made of the SBU in the realm of academia and civil society under the new Ukrainian government.

Security Service officers have searched the offices of research staff of the National Memorial Museum of Victims of the Occupation Regimes “Tyurma na Lonskoho” in Lviv. They apparently removed two computers and material for an exhibition on the dissident movement in Ukraine.

The action is in protest at the detaining State Security officers of historian Ruslan Zabily and will also highlight unlawful classification of publicly important information about Ukraine’s history.

Letter from the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and the Kharkiv Human Rights Group regarding the detention of Ruslan Zabily

It would seem that in Ukraine following the detention of historian Ruslan Zabily a case has been initiated, very similar to that in Russia, against historians studying the history of political repression