How many penalties have been imposed by the Commissioner since he was appointed?
Answer:
In his work so far the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance has not imposed any penalty, since he is government body not empowered to conduct proceedings and impose penalties.
The reasons for the above mentioned are as follows:
The provisions of the Art. 46-48 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public importance (²Official Gazette of the RS² No. 120/04) regulates infractions and respective punishments for breach of particular provisions of the Law referred to above.
Under the Art. 45 of the same Law it is set forth that control over the enforcement of this Law shall be carried out by the Ministry in charge of information activities.
Under the Art. 84 on the Law on Infractions (² Official Gazette of the SRS² No.44/89 and ²Official Gazette of the RS², No. 21/90,11/92, 20/93, 53/93, 22/94, 36/98, and 55/04), as bodies in charge to conduct infraction proceedings are envisaged Magistrate, as body of first instance, and Panel of Magistrate, as body of second instance.
Under the Art. 176 of the same Law is set forth that the request for institution of infraction proceedings shall be lodged by the authorised body or injured party, and also that the bodies in charge of institution of infraction proceedings are administrative bodies, authorised inspector, public prosecutor and other bodies and organizations, that execute public competence, and are in charge of direct enforcement or control over direct enforcement of rules regulating the infractions.
Taking into account the quoted statutory provisions, the body responsible for submission of requests for institution of infraction proceedings, in cases of infraction under Art. 46-48 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, is the Ministry of Culture, in the capacity of government body authorised of the supervision over the enforcement of the said Law.
Pursuant to the mentioned above, the Service of the Commissioner regularly reports the cases indicating the existence of infraction to the Ministry of Culture, which is in charge of information activities and submits documents on the appeals decided in administrative proceedings, requiring the same Ministry to execute the control, establish the identity of responsible persons and institute proceedings against them before the competent body.
