COMMISSIONER
FOR INFORMATION OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
AND PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION

logo novi


COMMISSIONER
FOR INFORMATION OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
AND PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION



logo novi

COMMISSIONER
FOR INFORMATION OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE AND PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION

Expired

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance celebrated 3 years of effective work. Since 1 July 2005, when minimum conditions were provided for the Commissioner's Office to start working, 4668 cases, mostly complaints, have been registered and 3928 have been solved. About 90% of people who were previously denied information of public importance, received information after addressing the Commissioner for Information. About 7% of complaints were refused or rejected. In several percents of all cases, when information were not received even after the Commissioner's order, the reason was failure of the Serbian Government to activate mechanisms for enforcing the Commissioner's orders, which is its legal duty.

The Commissioner organized a large number of seminars, mostly in cooperation with the civil sector, for education of employees in government bodies, citizens and journalists. Several editions of the guide through the Law were published, including editions on all languages of ethnic minorities. The Catalogue of public authorities, which includes about 11,000 subjects, was also published. Summing up the last three years, the Commissioner Rodoljub Šabić said the following:

Statistics show that we, my associates and I, managed to make a new public authority functional. I think this is reaffirmed by the really good opinions and formal recognitions from domestic and foreign experts, CoE, EU and OSCE, journalists' associations and, most importantly, from citizens.

A good thing is that results have been achieved in inadequate premises, with several times lower number of associates and with considerably lower spending of the budget resources compared to those envisaged. What is bad, however, is that work in inadequate conditions has negative effects on the Commissioner's diligence. It is really hard to understand why this very burdensome, and yet for the state so trivial problem of space has not been resolved for three years, all the more so because, for example, the National Program on EU Integration and the Personal Data Protection Bill envisage considerable extension of powers and further increase of duties of the Commissioner for Information.

The attainment of European legal standards is not a matter of nice wishes and stories, but of real life and practice, and this is why it requires necessary administrative capacities and an adequate normative environment.

The former implies the duty of the Serbian Government to finally, without further delay, provide adequate premises and working conditions for the Commissioner's Office and to activate mechanisms for enforcement of Commissioner's decisions and for liability of those who violate the Law.

The latter implies the duty of urgent adoption and actual implementation of several complementary laws, which will largely influence the quality of achievement of freedom of access to information. The first among these laws is certainly the Personal Data Protection Law. The adoption of this Law and its functional implementation are important not just because of the need to move towards a visa-free regime with the EU, but also to prevent possible violations of human rights, the potential scope of which we seem to be unaware of as a society.

Equally necessary is the Law on Confidential Data Classification. Without such modern law, it is possible, on the basis of long obsolete or completely arbitrary criteria, to grant the “confidentiality” status not only to information which does not deserve it, but also to information that is withdrawn for absolutely illegitimate interests.

Finally, we must not underestimate the fact that we are the only former socialist country which has not responded to the CoE appeal from the more than a decade old Resolution to deconstruct the legacy of former totalitarian regimes. We have not enacted any law on handling former regime secret services files, with all the negative consequences this implies.”

Monthly Statistical Report
31/12/2024
PENDING: 16.975
DONE: 169.894

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