Commissioner for Information of Public Importance Rodoljub Šabić said that the recent valuable discovery of hitherto unknown historical documents in the Archive of Serbia had to give rise to serious reconsideration not only of actual conditions in which this important state institution operates, but also of the existing or lacking legal solutions necessary for the Archive to perform its functions properly. From the aspect of exercise of freedom of information, the Commissioner emphasized problems arising from the non-existence of a separate law on handling secret services files, and he reiterated his support for passing such law.
In this context, Commissioner Rodoljub Šabić also said the following:
“This paradox that valuable documents are discovered now, although they have been in the Archive of Serbia for years, only confirms the fact that the Archive of Serbia operates with inadmissibly poor logistics, finances, premises and other similar conditions and it would be irresponsible to keep on ignoring this fact.
The fact that the Archive faces, or will face, huge problems because of serious shortcomings in the normative system as well must not be ignored. In recent years the Archive took from Security Information Agency several hundred thousands of documents and several dozen thousands of files which were the output of former secret services. According to the Law on Free Access to Information, these documents became a possible object of interest for persons who are directly affected by them and, possibly, for the general public. With the existing resources, the Archive is not capable of handling according to the set procedure e.g. several dozens thousand requests for access to information from these documents and an attempt to do that could make considerably difficult, even paralyze performing of basic functions.
In a democratic society, the right to access to information of persons who were subjected to illegal “processing” by secret services must be indisputable. The right of the public to access information from those files, at least the largest part of it, must be indisputable as well. On the other hand, because of the delicate nature and contents of these documents, as well as for many other reasons, virtually all former socialist countries enabled the public by special laws complete or partial access to information from the files of former regimes' secret services. Our country remains virtually the only one that has not done this, and I think that we should finally set about the task of drafting and enacting such a law in a serious, responsible way.“
