Affiliation:
1. Leonid Yuzkov Khmelnytskyi University of Management and Law
Abstract
It is found that the right to information about the activities of public authorities is linked to the more general constitutional right of everyone to freely collect, store and disseminate information in any lawful manner. The analyzed law is subject to international and domestic rules governing the right of access to information in general. At the same time, this right is regulated in great detail by special regulations that establish additional guarantees. An important guarantee that ensures the realization of the right of citizens to information about the activities of public authorities is the principle of transparency, which applies in many democracies around the world. The principle of transparency is manifested, firstly, in the fact that public authorities are obliged to inform the public about their activities, and secondly, every member of society has the appropriate right to receive such information, and the level of access to information about activities of public authorities is very important. Forms of exercising the right to information about the activities of public authorities, taking into account the peculiarities of legal regulation, are divided into passive and active. The passive form presupposes that the citizen himself gets acquainted with the information about the activity of the public authority, which duty is to make it public. An active form of exercising this right involves direct appeals of citizens or their groups to public authorities with requests to provide relevant information. It is concluded that ensuring the exercise of the right to information about the activities of public authorities is the key to building a democratic state governed by the rule of law and relies on public authorities, which are obliged to create all conditions for public participation in the adoption of legal acts by these bodies and to provide adequate access to complete and objective information about their activities.
Reference22 articles.
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2. 2. The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of November 4, 1950 was ratified by Law № 475/97–VR of July 17, 1997 (as amended on October 2, 2013). URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/995_004#Text (in Ukrainian).
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4. 4. On access to public information: Law of Ukraine of 13 January 2011 № 2939–VI (as amended on 24.102020). URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2939–17#Text (in Ukrainian).
5. 5. On information: Law of Ukraine of October 2, 1992 № 2657–XII (as amended on July 16, 2020). URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2657–12#Text (in Ukrainian).