The Mykolaiv City Council issued an invoice for UAH 2,980.35 to regional Institute of Mass Information representative Kateryna Sereda for making copies of documents she requested, Kateryna Sereda reports.
In her query, Sereda had asked for data on the budget funds spent on media coverage of the government’s work in 2025 and 2026, in particular for copies of contracts with media outlets, inlcuding all annexes, certificates of completion, and payment paperwork.
The City Council first said they were extending the query processing period to 20 business days due to the large amount of requested information.
Later, in the response signed by Mykolaiv’s first deputy mayor Vitaliy Lukov, the Council included 10 pages of the requested documents and said that Sereda would have to pay for the rest in accordance with the established procedure.
Institute of Mass Information lawyer Volodymyr Zelenchuk believes that the demand was unlawful, since the requested information was of public interest.
“The Law ‘On Access to Public Information’ provides for reimbursement of costs for copying or printing documents provided in response to a request if their volume exceeds 10 pages. The person requesting information is relieved of the obligation to reimburse such costs if the information they requested concerns their person or is of public interest,” Volodymyr Zelenchuk commented.
He explained that, even though “public interest” was not exhaustively defined in the law, case law outlines the criteria for it.
“However, the Supreme Administrative Court plenum listed the criteria for assessing whether information is of public interest in its resolution No. 10 dated 29 September 2016. The very fact that journalists express interest in certain issues may point to public interest. The resolution also lists information that contributes to improving the government’s accountability and oversight, in particular by ensuring transparency of decision-making processes or contributes to efficient oversight over the reception and spending of budget money, the disposal of state- or municipally owned property, and the distribution of social benefits as grounds for considering certain information as socially necessary,” the lawyer said.
Zelenchuk added that information on the spending of budget money on media coverage can be considered of public interest and no fee should be charged for making copies of these documents.
Earlirer, the Poltava Oblast Council charged the regional Institute of Mass Information representative 6,500 hryvnias for copies of contracts with the media.