Politics

SCM ADOPTS NEW REGULATIONS ON COURT DECISION PUBLICATION

11 octomber, 2017

The Superior Council of Magistracy adopted on Tuesday a new Regulation on the order of publishing court decisions on judicial institutions' websites and on the web page of the Superior Court of Justice (SCJ). The approved document differs from the initial variant, against which journalists and NGO representatives were protesting on Tuesday.

At the SCM meeting it was said that the new document was proposed by the SCJ and elaborated in accordance with the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights. The SCJ maintains that they took into account the realities of the Moldovan judicial practice, as well as opinions of media and civil society representatives, who were concerned about the restriction of access to information.

According to the established Regulations, the publishing of court decision on national court portal or, if necessary, on the SCJ web page, may be restricted in the interests of morality, public order or national security, or for protecting private life of the sides, or to the extent established by the court, when the justice interests may be damaged.

The list of cases to be considered will be published on the court website and will become accessible for the society at least three days before the court sitting. At publication, the number of the case will be indicated, family names of judge/judges who are examining the case, date, time and place of sitting, names of the sides, the object of court examination, as well as data about the openness of the court hearing. The information about the list of cases to be considered, will be deleted from the website three days after the hearing.

"All the court decisions will be published at the court national portal after their introduction in the Integrated Program on Case Administration. The SCJ final decisions will be published on its website after undergoing the same stage. The access to court decisions is free and does not imply any forms of registration", the new Regulations says.

At publishing court decisions, the names of participants will be indicated, with certain exceptions, agreed by courts. According to the Regulations, the published decisions will not indicate names of minors, as well as people's patronymic. Exceptions are criminal or administrative cases where minors have a status of the accused, instigators or accomplices. In such cases, their names may be disclosed.

The Regulations also implies that the following personal data will not be disclosed: data and place of birth, place of residence and/or stay, telephone number, personal code (IDNP), data about health (regardless of the disease), banking requisites, car registration number, identification code, medical insurance policy, personal social insurance code, as well as other information in accordance with the Law on protecting personal data.

The provision will enter into force after the publishing in the Monitorul Oficial governmental bulletin.

Participants in the Tuesday's protest in front of the SCM maintain that the new Regulation has a number of shortcomings. In particular they point at the fact that the court hearing agendas will be deleted from websites after hearings. According to public activists, this will lead to difficulties in seeking court decisions, which will have to be searched by the name of participants, but not the date of hearings. At the same time, protesters said that the adopted document was considerably improved against the initial draft regulations.

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