BackOn 7 June, 2012, on the initiative of the members of the coalition “For access to public information!” the working meeting of the Ukrainian Ombudsman was held. The meeting took place in the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.
Mrs. Valeriya Lutkovska and representatives of non-governmental organizations discussed strategy and mechanisms of collaboration in the field of protection of the right to access to public information.
Mrs. Valeriya Lutkovska underlined that priority task for the Ombudsman consists not only in monitoring but also in taking concrete steps to ensure the right to public information. The Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights supported suggestion of Mr. Victor Taran representing the "Center for political studies and analytics" to establish the Expert Council on Issues of Access to Public Information. The Council will consist of the representatives of the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights and of non-governmental organizations. Mrs. Valeriya Lutkovska stated that the Council will be created by the end of next week.
During the meeting the representatives of non-governmental organizations noted the relatively low level of citizens’ knowledge on their right to access to public information. The representatives of the Ukrainian Ombudsman were invited to participate in further educational events in order to acquaint citizens with their constitutional right to information.
The representatives of the Coalition emphasized considerable improvements of the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights in access to public information, and attracted attention to positive changes such as openness in communication with mass media, as well as information given on the official web-site of the Ombudsman.
Mr. Roman Golovenko (Institute of Mass Information), Mr. Ihor Rozkladay (Media Law Institute), Mr. Victor Taran (Centre of political studio and analytics) and an independent media expert Dmytro Kotlyar took part in the meeting of the Commissioner for Human Rights.
Source: Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights
