Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has warned that it is high time for the authorities to start much more responsibly, and more adequately to respond to the fact that an alarming amount of personal data is appearing in the public in general, especially in the media, which data can more than reasonably be assumed to originate from the data files, which have been established and maintained pursuant to law, disposed of by public authorities.

It is intolerable that those responsible and liable continuously ignore the presence of enormous amounts of personal data in the media, inter alia, even of data from the medical records, the results of polygraph testing, full content of the statements of detained witnesses, full data of suspects, crime victims, etc. which are considered "highly sensitive data" pursuant to the Law. This situation is particularly alarming if one bears in mind that the attempt of the media to obtain them through legal means, by exercising the rights derived from the Law on Free Access to Information, would almost certainly be rejected with reference to the fact that it is "confidential" or "so that this would not jeopardize the course of the proceedings".

The Commissioner respects the right of journalists and the media who receive such information not to disclose their sources of information, which right is guaranteed under the law, and he neither requires or expects them to do so, however, he urges them once again to refrain from publishing the information which constitutes gross violation of privacy, reminding them that their code of ethics reads: "Even if the competent national authorities publish information falling within the domain of privacy of the perpetrator or the victim, the media must not disclose the information. An error of state authorities does not imply "permission" to violate ethical principles of the profession."

However, a lot more is rightfully expected of state authorities. It is expected, they are obliged to demonstrate an incomparably more responsible attitude towards citizens' personal data, which, inter alia, includes the liability of individuals who are in breach of these obligations.

In this regard, the Commissioner recalls that this something which is, inter alia, criminalized by the Criminal Code and that Article 146 CC provides that an official in discharge of duty who without authorization obtains, communicates to another or otherwise uses information that is collected, processed and used in accordance with the law, for purposes other than those for which they are intended, shall be imposed a sentence to a term of imprisonment of up to three years.

The Commissioner, of course, cannot conduct criminal proceedings, it is a job which should and must be done by authorities vested with the power to do so under the law. In this respect it is indicative and alarming that despite repeated Commissioner's warnings, even in relation to criminal charges filed by him, no one has been prosecuted so far for the offence under Article 146, and that the number of instituted misdemeanor or disciplinary proceedings is far from satisfactory.

It is high time for the previous practice to cease and to start treating the question of liability in connection with the protection of personal data in a fundamentally different way. Past practice has not only been compromising from the standpoint of the expected negotiations on Chapter 23 with the EU, but also, what is more important, it has been the constant source of serious violations of human rights guaranteed by our Constitution and laws.