Registration for the unique online course “Access to Public Information: from A to Z” is open now at the Prometheus web platform. The course was developed with the support of the Council of Europe Project “Strengthening freedom of media and establishing a Public broadcasting system in Ukraine", in cooperation with the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights and experts from the NGO “Center for democracy and the rule of law”. The registration is available via link and the lectures will become available since 1 March 2017.

The duration of the course is 5 weeks. All course materials and the possibility to receive a certificate upon its completion will be accessible on a permanent basis.

The course has the following structure:

1) The history of the concept of the access to information in the world and international standards.

2) The Law of Ukraine "On Access to Public Information" - general overview. What is “public information”?

3) Administrators of information. The specifics of certain administrators of information.

4) Request for information: procedure for submission and consideration.

5) Regimes of access to public information: publicly available information.

6) Regimes of access to public information: secret, classified and confidential information.

7) The use of test on public interest. The balance of the right to information and right to privacy

8) How the departments of public information administrators should work. Rules and practice of filling official websites with content.

9) Receiving the information from the public Registers.

10) Getting access to meetings of collegial bodies.

11) Appeals against violations of the right to access the public information.

12) ECtHR case law on access to information.

The course is fully free of charge and contains all materials sufficient for its successful completion. However teacher could recommend additional sources in order to further explore a particular topic. All you need is access to the Internet with a speed suitable to watch video lectures.

We welcome all interested to learn how to get the access to public information and work with the information requests! The course will be particularly useful for the civil society activists, journalists, civil servants and students of law faculties.

Council of Europe Project “Strengthening Freedom of the Media and Establishing a Public Broadcasting System in Ukraine” is aimed to enhance the role of media and the public broadcaster in particular as an instrument for consensus building in the Ukrainian society. The Project is implemented in the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2015-2017. In 2016-2017 the Project is financed from the budget of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2015-2017.

Please follow the media projects of the Council of Europe on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoEUPSIS and on Twitter @UkraineCoE

To find more information visit the web-site of the Council of Europe office in Ukraine: https://www.coe.int/en/web/kyiv/freedom-of-media-in-ukraine