On the 30th of June 2011 Media Law Institute held an educational seminar “Government transparency and access to information”. The seminar included such topics as legal mechanisms of inspecting governmental activities by society, public expertise of governmental activities and realization of the right to access information.

At the seminar Media Law Institute director Taras Shevchenko, and lawyers Igor Rozkladaj and Olha Sushko told about the issues of receiving information on governmental activities, specifically, on submitting informational requests, passive obtaining of previously published information, conducting public expertises etc. Oksana Nesterenko, an expert from Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, highlighted the problems of classifying information and examples of its disclosure due to the existing public interest. Oksana Vashchuk, a program director of Information and Legal Centre “Our Law” presented her views on responsibility for the unlawful refusal to provide public information and possible ways of appealing such refusals.

This educational seminar is a part of the project “Government Accountability through the Informed Society”. This project is being conducted within the UNITER Program, which is being implemented by PACT Inc in Ukraine with a sicnere support from the American people given through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).