The Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal sustained a claim by a journalist Oksana Kovalenko and declared illegal the refusal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to provide information on sources of publication of the declaration of assets by the Party of Regions head Alexander Efremov, in 2012. The court ordered the Apparatus to provide a complete, accurate and reliable response to this request.

 

Apparatus of VRU justified its refusal by the fact that such information was not public, and disclosure of information contained in declaration may take place only upon consent of MP. The first instance court agreed with these arguments.

 

However, the Court of Appeal rejected this position and indicated that if the Apparatus had fail to publish relevant information in violation of the law – it had to mention this in its answer. Yet, the court also noted that no legislative act requires consent by MP to disclose information from his/her declaration of assets in accordance with the law “On the Prevention and Combating Corruption”.

 

This case was supported by the Fund for Protection of the Right to Information, established by the Media Law Institute, and funded by the International Renaissance Foundation.