Date of entry into
force:
May 9, 2011
(Abstract)
The Law determines the procedure of exercising and ensuring the common
right to access information possessed by power entities, other administrators
of public information defined by the Law, and information that constitutes
public interest.
According to Article 1 of the Law, public information is information
reproduced and documented by any means and on any carriers, that was received
or created in the process of a power entity's performance of duties provided
for by the current legislation, or that is possessed by power entities or other
administrators of public information. Public information is publicly available,
except for cases established by the law.
Article 6 of the Law envisages that restricted information is:
·
confidential information;
·
secret information;
·
proprietary information.
According to Article 7 of the Law, confidential information is information,
the access to which is limited by a natural person or a legal entity, except
for power entities, and which may be promulgated at their discretion, according
to the procedure determined by them and on the conditions established by them.
Secret information is information that contains state, professional or
banking secrets, secrets of investigation and other secrets provided for by the
legislation.
Article 12 of the Law envisages that subjects of relations in the sphere of
access to public information are:
·
requesters of
information – natural persons, legal entities, citizen associations that do not
possess the status of a legal entity, except for power entities;
·
information administrators;
·
a structural
division or a responsible person of information administrators in the issues of
information requests.
An information administrator is responsible for determining the tasks and
providing for the functioning of a structural division or a responsible person
in the issues of information requests that are responsible for processing,
systematizing, analyzing and controlling the satisfaction of the information
request and providing consultations during the request submission (Article 16
of the Law).
Article 17 of the Law establishes that parliamentary control of observance
of the right of a person to access information is carried out by the Authorized
Human Rights Representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, temporary
investigation commissions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and people's deputies
of Ukraine.
An information request is a request addressed by a person to an information
administrator, requesting to provide public information possessed by the
administrator. The requester has the right to address the information
administrator with an information request regardless of whether the information
concerns the requester personally, without clarifying the reasons for the
request (Article 19 of the Law).
According to Article 20 of the Law, the information administrator must
provide a reply to the information request within five working days of
receiving the request.
Article 21 of the Law establishes that information on request is provided
free of charge. If satisfying the information request requires producing more
than 10 pages of document copies, the requester must compensate the actual
copying and printing expenses.
According to Article 22 of the Law, the information administrator has the
right to refuse satisfying a request in the following cases:
·
the information
administrator does not possess and is not obligated, according to its
competence as provided for by the legislation, to possess the information to
which the request pertains;
·
the requested
information belongs to the restricted information category;
·
the person who has
submitted the information request, did not pay for the actual copying and
printing expenses;
·
requirements to
the information request have not been met.
Article 23 of the Law envisages that the decisions, actions or inaction of
information administrators can be contested with the head of the administrator,
a higher body or a court.
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