February, 6, 2012, Iryna Solomko brought a suit against the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the
District Administrative Court of Kyiv. The observer of “The Correspondent” made that decision
after the staff of the Verkhovna Rada refused to give her information about assistants of deputies of
the Ukrainian Parliament.

In particular, Iryna Solomko had asked for a list of assistants of deputies of the 6th convocation, the
names of those assistants who have civil servant status, and salary for September and October 2011
of those assistants who are civil servants.

The refusal to provide the information was based on the statement that the requested data related “to
confidential information about a person protected by law.”

Instead, the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information” clearly states that access to
information on disposal of budget funds, on conditions of getting these means and on names
of individuals getting them can not be limited. The request of Iryna Solomko was just about the
employees who are paid salary from the state budget.

What is more, the refusal came without completing three-tier test under the Law of Ukraine “On
Access to Public Information” which is intended to determine whether a restriction of access to
information is reasonable in each case.

In court, the interests of Iryna Solomko will be represented by lawyers of the Media Law Institute.
The course of events will be covered in the news at the website of the Institute.