Blic
Rodoljub Sabic, Information CommissionerIn the text entitled “Precedent”, recently published in Blic, I wrote about how the Montenegrin Administrative Court, in the dispute between the Network for Affirmation of Non-Government Sector (MANS) and National Security Agency (ANB), annulled the resolution of the National Security Agency on rejecting the request to make public the information about the number of people whose communications were monitored in 2005. MANS referred to the similar case in Serbia, where the Information Commissioner ordered BIA to provide the requested information, and that BIA's complaint against the order was rejected by the Serbian Supreme Court. The court in Podgorica annulled the ANB's resolution as illegal, as “there was no proof that revealing the requested information would cause more damage to the interests of national security than the public interest in its publicising” and ordered ANB to pass a new resolution. Everyone here waited for the new resolution in great anticipation, as the outcome could have been rather curious to us: the decision of the Serbian Commissioner would be used as a “precedent” on the international level, although it was not acted upon in the country of its origin. ANB obliged MANS with the requested information. The public was informed that communications of 45 persons were monitored and that the movement of 5 persons was under surveillance in Montenegro in 2005. I cannot tell if what ANB has done will have an effect on the execution of the Serbian Commissioner's resolution. It is obvious, though, that Montenegro has made a serious step towards demystification of work of government agencies and that it did not do any harm to its national security.
