The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, in cooperation with the OSCE Mission to Serbia, the Association of Serbian Journalists, the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia and the NGO Freedom of Information Coalition, with the attendance of numerous representatives from the media, NGO's, public authorities and members of the diplomatic chorus, hosted an event today to commend the Right to Know Day, 28 September. The meeting was addressed by: H.E. Peter Burkhard, Head of OSCE Mission to Serbia, Ms NNE Koch, Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia at Transparency International, Mr. Sasa Jankovic, Ombudsman, and Mr. Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection.

The meeting was an opportunity to introduce the publication "Freedom of Information – Commissioner's Positions and Opinions", which was presented by Ms Stanojla Mandic, Deputy Commissioner.

In commendation of the Right to Know Day, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic said:

"Once again, Serbia is commending the Right to Know Day, just as we have done in the past seven years. Allow me to take this opportunity to remind you that, although implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information has yielded obvious results, there is little reason to be satisfied. The situation in the field of freedom of information has not been improving at a satisfactory rate. For this reason we are missing an opportunity to achieve the necessary results in further democratisation, rationalisation of the government apparatus, establishment of better relations in the media sphere and, perhaps most importantly, in the fight against corruption, crime and abuse.

This is why the Award Committee this year decided not to present the main award – the Special Award and Statuette for Affirmation of Freedom of Information and Transparency of Work, for which all public authorities are eligible.

The Committee also decided not to present the awards in all six categories that have been established in the past years, opting instead to present only two of them.

The Award for Contribution to the Affirmation of Freedom of Information and Transparency of Work was presented to the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Belgrade. The Award was collected by Ms Zorica Vujic, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy.

The award in the competition for "The Best Information Booklet on the Work of Public Authorities" was presented to the Ministry of Culture and Information. Mr. Ivan Tasovac, Minister of Culture and Information, collected the award.

Following the practice established in the past years, the awardees were selected by a Committee comprised of representatives of the Association of Serbian Journalists, the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia, a representative of the academia and a representative of the NGO Freedom of Information Coalition, while Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic presented the awards."