Brovary District Court did not help to openinformation regarding bomb-shelters in Brovary that the journalist, DmytroKarpiy, tried to obtain. Though the court defined rejection in access toinformation as unfounded, it did not fulfill claims. Media Law Instituteconducts this case.
On 5 February 2015, Brovary District Court completed court proceedings onthe Dmytro Karpiy’s claim to Brovary Municipal Council regarding unlawfulrejection to access to the information on number, location of bomb-shelters inBrovary city, their readiness condition and financing from the municipalbudget. The full text of the decision with Court’s groundings is still in theprocess of preparation. During hearings, the Court declared the operative partof the decision, according to which the claim is partly fulfilled. Therejection in access to the information was founded unlawful, but instead offulfilling claims on access to the full information on the journalist’s requests,the Court only obliged Municipal Council to examine them once again.
In September 2014, Dmytro Karpiy asked Media Law Institute’s Fund forProtection of the Access the Information Right to provide legal support in thecase against Brovary District Court that rejected to open access to informationon shelters referring that the requested information is a state secret. Duringjudicial proceedings that have started in December 2014, Municipal Council’srepresentatives recognized that this information is not a secret, but continuedto insist on the restricted access to it as if it was inside information. Exceptthat it was founded that information regarding shelters and their readiness hasbeen already announced during open session of Municipal Council and, thus,there were no legal grounds to limit access to such data.
Taking into consideration public importance of the information on means ofpopulation’s defense in conditions of serious armed threats, Dmytro Karpiy andhis representative – Vita Volodovska, the lawyer of Media Law Institute, planto appeal the decision of Brovary District Court.