NGO Wins Access to Information Lawsuit Against Customs Service
The Supreme Court of Justice has ruled in favor of the Investigative Journalism Center (CIN) in a case related to journalist access to public interest information against the Customs Service of Moldova.
In November 2008, the journalists of the Investigative Journalism Center who were investigating the dubious chicken meat business requested the Customs Service to provide them information about the amount of chicken meat products exported/imported by business companies, the list of countries from/to which chicken meat is imported/exported, and the statistics on customs frauds related to such products, identified by the customs officers in the past two years. The Customs Service refused to provide the requested information, claiming it was “confidential” and at the same time suggesting that a part of the information could be requested from the Statistics Service, and the information about chicken meat frauds – from the Ministry of Interior. The Ministry did not answer the journalists request for information, while the Statistics Service offered only a part of the requested information.
Since the Customs Service had similarly refused earlier to provide information about the customs frauds related to tobacco and amount of electricity imported by Moldova from Ukraine, the Investigative Journalism Center sued the Customs Service for restricting the journalists’ access to public interest information, thus violating the citizens’ rights to accurate and truthful information. However, Chisinau Court of Appeal rejected CIN complaint as groundless in January 2009.
The panel of judges of the Supreme Court of Justice, to which CIN appealed, found that “the information requested by the Investigative Journalism Center is not subject- matter of trade secret, that is, it is not regulated by the trade secret law”, establishing that “the defendant illegally limited the plaintiff’s right to access to information, severely violating not only its rights but also the citizens’ right to active and truthful information about public interest matters.”
The Supreme Court of Justice established that “the first instance court erroneously applied the legal norms” and reversed the Court of Appeal judgment, issuing a new judgment and obliging the Customs Service of Moldova to provide to CIN the information requested by the latter on 10 November 2008. The IJC decision is irrevocable.
Investigative Journalism Center (www.investigatii.md)
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