Rivne oblast enlistment center loses appeal to journalists requesting salary data

mi100.info

The Administrative Court of Appeal No. 8 has declared the Rivne Oblast enlistment center's refusal to provide Chetverta Vlada journalist with requested information unlawful. The ruling was passed on November 21, Chetverta Vlada reports.

The media outlet's journalist Valentyna Paniuk is suing the Rivne Oblast Territorial Staffing and Social Support Center (TSC) to receive data on the salaries of the Center’s management and the number of their staff. The enlistment center refuses to provide the data, arguing that its disclosure “may harm national security interests.”

As reported earlier, in September, the first instance court judged in favor of Valentyna Paniuk and found the Rivne Oblast TSC's refusal to provide her with information on the 2023 salaries of the management unlawful.

According to Chetverta Vlada, the court rulings have already entered into force, so the oblast TSC should provide the journalist with the requested information.

Chetverta Vlada tried to get a comment from the enlistment center as to how soon they would comply with the court ruling, but could not immediately contact them.

Previously

In January 2024, following the scandalous dismissal of the Rivne TSC director, the journalist submitted a query asking to provide information on the 2023 salaries of its management. The TSC responded to the query with a refusal, which was signed by Ivan Pavliuk, the head of the Rivne Oblast TSC.

At first, the journalists appealed this reply to the Office of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights. However, after the Commissioner's response, they received another refusal from the TSC, justified as follows: "The disclosure of the requested information may harm Ukraine's national security interests."

"How data on the salaries of TSC officials can harm national security was not explained," writes "Chetverta Vlada".

The media outlet notes that the Commissioner stopped defending the journalists' right to information after that. The Rivne oblast representative of the Commissioner for Human Rights, Oleksandr Korniychuk, told the journalists in his reply that their rights had been restored, even though no information had been provided. Then the "Chetverta Vlada" journalist Valentyna Paniuk challenged the refusal in court.

Recently, "Chetverta Vlada" won a lawsuit against the Enforcement Service Department of the Ministry of Justice.