“UA.NEWS journalists appealed to the High Council of Justice with a complaint about the actions of Lviv District Administrative Court judge Nataliya Sydor. She refused to satisfy the claim of journalist Pavlo Kotsyubynskyi to the Territorial Department of the DBR in Lviv and delayed the consideration of the case for more than three months. What preceded this – read in our text. The judge did not side with the journalists”, — write on: ua.news
UA.NEWS journalists appealed to the High Council of Justice with a complaint about the actions of Lviv District Administrative Court judge Nataliya Sydor. She refused to satisfy the claim of journalist Pavlo Kotsyubynskyi to the Territorial Department of the DBR in Lviv and delayed the consideration of the case for more than three months.
What preceded this – read in our text.
The judge did not side with the journalists
Judge Sydor considered case No. 380/13615/25 in a simplified proceeding without summoning the parties, but made a decision only a few months after the opening of the proceedings.
Such delay, according to the editors, may indicate deliberate delay. Or a probable outside influence.
“Consideration of such administrative claims usually lasts up to 30 days. By law, this period is limited to 60 days. In our case, the judge kept the case “on hold” for three and a half months. One gets the impression that the decision was agreed upon not only within the walls of the court,” says journalist Pavlo Kotsyubynskyi.
Based on the results of the review, the judge rejected the lawsuit, actually siding with the state body that denied journalists access to public information, despite the direct requirement of the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information.”
Conflict with the SBI: when a journalist became an “unwanted applicant”
The UA.NEWS lawsuit related to the refusal of the Territorial Department of the SBI in Lviv to provide copies of documents confirming the consideration of the journalist’s appeal about the excess of authority by police officers in collusion with the judge of the Lychakiv District Court of the city of Lviv, Volodymyr Marmash, and the head of the same court, Hryhoriy Zhovnir.
The editors submitted request No. 183 yet June 12, 2025 but the SBI responded with a refusal, referring to the “special procedure for access to inspection materials.”
The journalists challenged the relevant actions in court as illegal, but judge Sydor recognized the position of the SBI as legal.
According to the editors, this creates a dangerous precedent, when journalists are actually deprived of the right to information necessary for public control.
Judges Sydor, Zhovnir and Marmash: coincidence or influence?
The delay in the court decision raises special questions, taking into account the context of the case, which was related to the journalistic investigations of UA.NEWS regarding the judges of Lychakiv district court of Lviv, Volodymyr Marmash, one of the most odious judges in the region, about whom incriminating materials were repeatedly published by various mass media and public organizations, and the head of the same court, Hryhoriy Zhovnir.
It was after establishing the facts of possible non-declaration of property and income by the family of these judges that journalists began to receive threats.
Shortly after that, Judge Sydor, who works in the same judicial community of Lviv, began to unnecessarily delay the consideration of the UA.NEWS lawsuit against the DBR regarding the case of Zhovnir and Marmash.
“We are not saying that there was a direct indication, but the coincidence seems too obvious. The judge, who is in professional contact with Marmash and Zhovnir, actually sided with the structure that ignored journalistic inquiries about their activities. And the DBR in the city of Lviv is located in the Lychakiv district of Lviv, that is, all cases of complaints against this structure are considered by judges Zhovnir and Marmash themselves,” the editors emphasized.
UA.NEWS appealed to the High Council of Justice
The editorial board of UA.NEWS filed a disciplinary complaint with the High Council of Justice (HCJ) against judge Nataliya Sydor, in which it demands to check signs of bias, violation of procedural terms and possible external influence on the part of colleagues — other judges, in particular Marmash and Zhovnir
“ If a judge allows a colleague or his influence to determine the outcome of a case, it is no longer a court, but a corporate bail bond. Such cases should be investigated openly so that society understands how decisions are made when it comes to public information,” says the position of UA.NEWS.
UA.NEWS calls for transparency
The editors of UA.NEWS call on the Supreme Council of Justice, the NAKC and human rights organizations to pay attention to the situation in Lviv courts, where, according to the journalists, internal “corporate solidarity” between judges can operate.
UA.NEWS emphasizes that the independence of the court and freedom of the press are not mutually exclusive but complementary values, and they determine the level of democracy in Ukraine and freedom of speech.
