LEGAL ASPECTS OF REALIZING ACCESS TO INFORMATION TO ACHIEVE PUBLIC INTEREST (SOCIALLY NEEDED INFORMATION)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analysis of civil
court practice and practice of the European Court of
Human Rights on the issue of information that is
recognized as socially necessary. An attempt is made
to distinguish between the terms “information of
public interest” and “socially necessary
information” and the issues of access to this kind of
information are investigated.

The legislation does not define the term «public
interest» or «publicly needed information», which
introduces ambiguity in the interpretation of the rules
of law, but does not limit the public interest within
the legislative definition.
The conclusion is drawn that the features of
information of public interest are not exhaustive, so it
is important to analyze the relevant case law.
Information of public interest should include
any information obtained, created or owned by the
information managers, other than information that is
expressly limited by law or where the harm of
disclosing such information is greater, than the harm
caused by its limitations.
In doing so, it is necessary to consider the use
of the «three-part test», which determines the
permissible restriction of access to public
information, the prohibition of which is established
directly by law.
It is considered to be contrary to the principle
of equality of taking into account the identity of the
requester when deciding whether the information is
classified as being of public interest.
Managers of information obliged to disclose
and make available on request information are encouraged to equate economic entities, regardless of ownership, who possess: environmental information; information on the quality of food and household items; information on accidents, catastrophes, dangerous natural phenomena and other emergencies that have occurred or may occur and threaten the health and safety of citizens; other information of public interest (publicly needed information).
Key words: socially necessary information, information of public interest, «three-way test», the manager of publicly required information, the requester of information.