The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has in a letter to Zagorka Dolovac, Republican Public Prosecutor, brought up the case of the interview, which was conducted at the police station in Trstenik at the request of the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office on the grounds of the allegations of Mario Spasic, Secretary General of the NGO - the Council for Monitoring, Human Rights and Fight against Corruption – Transparency, during which he was, among others, asked the question: "Have you used the benefits under the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance to impede the work of the school and file false reports?"

Without getting into other hypothetical reasons for the interview with Mr. Spasic, the Commissioner believes that is unprecedented for anyone, in any context, to be the subject of criminal charges, especially the prosecution by the Public Prosecutor's Office due to their exercise of the rights deriving from the Law on Free Access to Information.

The Commissioner has warned that there are many reasons for anyone's criminal prosecution for the "exercise of rights under the Law on Free Access to Information" to be associated with a negative, totally undesirable impact on citizens to refrain from exercising their constitutionally and legally guaranteed rights, and it is therefore a case which deserves the attention of the Republican Public Prosecutor's Office.