Supreme Court finds Government guilty of violating right to information in case filed by investigative journalists

The Supreme Court of Justice has pronounced the Government guilty of violating the citizen's right to information, by obstructing the access to information of public concern, in a case filed by the Investigative Journalism Center, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Center sued the Government after it refused to offer information for a journalistic inquiry into the financing of the reconstruction of Curchi Monastery. The Center requested information about the “money spent on the reconstruction of the monastery, the funds offered by the state budget, as well as the list of the individual and corporate benefactors that made donations for the restoration of the monastery, the list of the accounts on which the donations were made, copies of reports accounting for the use of funds for the restoration works, presented by the administration of Curchi Monastery, the observers board of the Government, and the list of the companies that participated in the restoration”. At the start of 2009, the Chisinau Appeals Court rejected the Center's application, declaring it groundless. The Center then decided to appeal the decision in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court found that the Government had limited the applicant's access to information, violating not only its right, but also the right of the citizens to information of public interest, and ordered the Government to issue the requested information. “The restoration of the Curchi Monastery was conducted under the patronage of the president at the time Vladimir Voronin and, according to information that we possessed, a number of companies were forced to make donations to the monastery”, the Center said.