The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, Mr. Rodoljub Šabić, says that the constantly large inflow of complaints submitted by citizens, press and others speaks for itself about the unwillingness of most public authorities to change their attitude towards the right of the public to free access to information held by public authorities. Recalling that in the first four and a half months of this year the Commissioner had received more than 560 complaints and that it clearly showed the Government had to change its attitude towards this right enshrined in the Constitution and law much faster, Commissioner Rodoljub Šabić added:

“If the advocacy of more efficient fight against abuse and corruption, as well as freedom of thought, freedom of expression, media freedom and many other democratic freedoms is not accompanied by actual readiness to provide the public freedom of access to the widest possible range of information, it is either based on illusions or, even worse, on dishonesty, hypocrisy.

“The right of citizens, media and the public in general to free access to information created in the work or in connection with the work of the Government should be a matter of course in a democratic society. This right is not some new and unnecessary burden for public authorities, but an expression of a normal relationship between public authorities and citizens, voters and taxpayers. This is why the exercise of this right should rely on its enforcement by the Commissioner for Information only in exceptional circumstances, and not frequently, indeed almost as a rule.

“For this reason, the large number of complaints submitted to the Commissioner, both in absolute and in relative terms, is indicative and worrying. What is particularly worrying is that there are evident and frequent problems in the exercise of the right of free access to information, even where information involved concerns issues such as privatization of State-owned enterprises, public expenditures and procurements and other similar information which should by their very nature and by virtue of other laws be available without the guarantees provided by the Law on Free Access to Information.”