RIGHT TO INFORMATION: COMMUNICATIVE FREEDOM, SCOPE OF CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION, GROUNDS FOR RESTRICTIONS

In: Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Legal Studies, Heft 117, S. 44-49

Abstract

The article is devoted to determining the place of the right to information in the system of communicative freedoms, specifying the scope of constitutional protection and clarifying the criteria for its restriction. During the research a wide range of general scientific and special-legal methods of scientific knowledge was used, in particular: logical, historical, comparative-legal and system-structural methods of research. The analysis of domestic and German legal literature on the right to information was important for achieving the goal of the study. The study of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany devoted to the interpretation of this fundamental human right was of particular cognitive importance. As a result of the study, the author states that the right to information belongs to the system of communicative freedoms. As a separate communicative freedom, it actively interacts with other freedoms, such as freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of cinema, and so on. At the same time, the right to information is subordinated to the general goal of communicative freedoms – to be an instrument of communication of an individual with society, a real opportunity to express and convey his views, beliefs and opinions to other individuals. The right to information protects access to public information not by a particular group of individuals, but by the corresponding right of each individual. In addition, this right should not be construed as a right to restrict access to certain information. Given this, the scope of protection of the right to information is to protect the right of everyone to access information that is in publicly available sources of information. Such information is the source for forming the views and beliefs of individuals. The appropriate approach should be reflected in the following interpretative acts of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on the interpretation of the right to information. This fundamental human right may be restricted. However, such interference in the exercise of this right of individuals should not turn into its complete leveling, turning it into fiction. Therefore, along with the purely normative grounds for restricting the right to information, additional criteria are defined according to which each individual case of restriction of this right of individuals must be assessed. Keywords: information, communication freedom, human rights, sphere of protection, restriction of human rights