The current law on access to public information in Ukraine is a pure formality, consultant of the Organization of economic cooperation and development on anti-corruption issues Dmytro Kotliar told a seminar "Protection of personal data and media," ForUm correspondent reports.

According to the expert, the law on access to public information was developed on basis of the best world experience, but in Ukraine the document is a pure formality.

Kotliar informed that journalists are often denied access to certain information, for example salary of state officials, upon the pretext that such information is confidential and comes under the statute on protection of personal data.

The expert underlined that it is needed to find a balance between the right for information and right for privacy.

In his turn, director of Media rights Institute Taras Shevchenko noted that the relevant law is being realized in a wrong manner. "We see that the legislation is being used for denying access to personal data. There are many examples when the state bodies see the forbidding norms and ignore the permissive ones," he said.

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