Zakarpattia Forestry promises to respond journalist's request if she shows her journalist ID

Velyki Bychky forestry (in Zakarpatska oblast), in response to the request of the journalist of the media outlet “Holos Karpat” Olena Mudra demands to send all requests in a written form. Also, the forestry demands to attach to the request the journalist's ID, and only in this case promises to provide the necessary information. This case was reported by “Dostup do Pravdy” with a reference to the journalist of the media outlet “Holos Karpat” Olena Mudra. The journalist sent her request by e-mail and asked to provide documents about forest clearance areas of Kobyletsko-Polianske forestry, where the forest was being cut down in 2015-2017, namely, the clearance ticket and scheme of the clearance area. The administrator responded with a great delay, in a month after receiving the request, and argued that to avoid abuse “by unauthorized people who could misuse the e-mail of the enterprise and to avoid fraudulent actions by such people you need to send the request again in a form of hardcopy”. The lawyer of the movement “Sylni Hromady” Natalia Ryzhkova points out that the Law of Ukraine “On access to Public Information” does not have any provisions that include an obligation to provide documents that identify the requester and certify his or her powers. Thus, the request of the state enterprise "Velykobychkivske forestry and hunting enterprise" about providing journalist ID of the journalist requesting the information does not have any legal grounds. The same is true about the second request - of using a hardcopy request instead of e-mail. IMI lawyer Maksym Ratushnyi confirmed this and added that the forestry administration might be confusing journalist request with a lawyer's request - in case of the latter, the lawyer is bound to identify himself/herself. Yet these two types of information requests are in fact very different.