President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed Bill No. 11321, which makes the work of the Verkhovna Rada committees open for the media and the public. Lawyers at the Institute of Mass Information were involved in the development of amendments to this bill, with the organisation actively advocating for it.

The Bill was returned with the President’s signature on 17 December 2025, the Bill’s info page says.

The Bill says that parliamentary committees must work transparently, reporting in advance what issues they will be reviewing and when, livestreaming the meetings online, keeping the footage and allowing journalists and the public to enter without unnecessary obstacles.

The Bill’s provisions

  • Meeting livestreams: from now on, Verkhovna Rada committee meetings are to be broadcast live. Video recordings of the meetings must be available within 24 hours after their conclusion and remain freely accessible indefinitely.
  • Committees are to report on their work to the public: releasing the work plans, meeting schedules, disclosing the issues discussed and the decisions made.
  • Publishing agendas in advance: the agenda and draft decisions must be made public at least 24 hours before a meeting begins.
  • Open access to committees’ decisions: decisions adopted by committees while preparing draft bills for the first vote are to be made public no later than five business days after the committee meeting’s end date.
  • Access for journalists and the public: journalists, media workers, and representatives of civil society organisations have the right to attend meetings and other open committee events. Journalists who are already accredited to report in the Verkhovna Rada do not need to go through extra accreditation processes to attend committee meetings.

On 14 January 2025, the Verkhovna Rada overall supported the Bill No. 11321 “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Enhancing Certain Guarantees for the Work of the Media, Journalists, and for Citizens’ Access to Information”.

On 4 September 2025, the Verkhovna Rada voted in favour of resuming livestreams of parliamentary meetings.

Previously

Lawyers at the Institute of Mass Information were involved in the development of amendments to the Bill No. 11321, which makes the work of the Verkhovna Rada committees open for the media and the public. The organisation actively advocated for it.

The Institute of Mass Information called for the document to include permission for journalists with UAF accreditation to travel freely during curfew. However, this provision was cut from the final version of the draft bill.

In December 2024, multiple civil society organisations and media professionals called on the Verkhovna Rada to make parliamentary committee meetings open to journalists and the public and to adopt draft bill No. 11321 by the end of the year.