Dnipropetrovsk employment center ignores journalists’ oral requests

Dnipropetrovsk oblast employment center refused to provide information to the oral request of the journalist of the newspaper «Uriadovy Kurier» Natalia Bilovytska.

On September 29, Natalia made a phone call to the head of the employment center’s department of organizational and informational work and asked to give information on employment for displaced persons from the East. But the official refused to answer to an oral request on a phone call and demanded the request were made in writing based on the decree of the head of Dnipropetrovska oblast state administration, according to which public information must be provided only to written requests.

The journalist turned to the press service of the oblast state administration, where she was told such a decree does exist but refused to show it as they said it was an in-house document.

According to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Access to Public Information’, requests can be made in oral, written, or other form (by phone, fax, email) up to the requester’s preference.