Commissioner for information of Public Importance Rodoljub Šabić was today in Niš, where he participated in two gatherings dealing in the freedom to access information.
Commissioner spoke in Media Center with a large number of journalists, media and NGO representatives about the contents of the analysis that has been performed by a group of Slovenian experts within monitoring of implementation of our Law on Access to Information, organized in cooperation with the American Lawyers Association - Initiative for the Rule of Law (ABA/CEELI).
Later on, in the City Hall, in the presence of media representatives, the Commissioner spoke to the leaders, that is to local bodies in power representatives about the things that are necessary to be implemented in order to overcome numerous problems observed in the Law implementation.
The Commissioner, Rodoljub Šabić, evaluated that without questioning the importance of accelerated adoption of the laws based on European standards, the real measure of our progress in the process of EU accession must be implementation of those standards in the real life.
Commissioner said, besides else:
„For implementation of numerous human rights and important societal goals, a very important assumption is consistent application of the Law on Free Access to Information. To believe that the freedom of opinion and expression, media freedom, electoral right, right of the citizens to participate in the process of passing relevant decisions and numerous other rights can be implemented in line with the European democratic standards without free access to information of public importance would be an obvious, dangerous and harmful illusion. Without wide free access of citizens and media to the data deriving from work or in relation to the work of the government, the European standards regarding the role of the power in the society, as well as the results in control of power and fight against corruption can not be met. Of course, primary, basic condition for consistent application of any law is knowing its contents. Therefore are very annoying everyday, sometimes even shocking, obvious examples of lack of knowledge of the employees in state bodies, regarding the obligations they have regarding the Law on Free Access to Information, about the rights of the citizens and media, as well as about the procedure for implementation of those rights.
Training of staff for implementation of the European standards, as the obligation of the bodies in power has been envisaged by the law itself, but there isn't sufficient work in that field. That is something that has to change. Anyhow, even in the evaluation report of GRECO for Serbia, a recommendation has been given to organize and implement on the national level a training program for employees, as well as the campaign for informing the widest audience about the contents of the Law on Access to Information. GRECO's recommendations are obligatory for member states, and the deadline for execution is the end of this year. Missing to execute the obligations we have accepted surely does not contribute to our EU accession, so this is also a good reason to start working more energetically on staff training, without delay.“
