Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, Mr. Rodoljub Šabić has today, in the letters directed to Presidents of the Association of Journalists of Serbia (Udruženje novinara Srbije - UNS), Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (Nezavisno udruženje novinara Srbije - NUNS) and Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (Nezavisno društvo novinara Vojvodine - NDNV), congratulated journalists in Serbia the 3rd of May, International Day of Media Freedom. Commissioner wished the journalists the best wishes for successful work and confirmed his readiness and obligation to help them achieve their important social function.
Stressing the importance of public and the role that journalists and media have in democratic society, the Commissioner evaluated that the state should do much more on the plan of creation of prerequisites for implementation of that role. In relation to that, the Commissioner, Rodoljub Šabić stated the following:
„It is good that the journalists and media are increasingly using their right to freely access information and they use in the function of informing the widest audience. However, there are worrying cases where, although they have relied on the legal right and requested and received the Order of the Commissioner for Information to be allowed to do so, they haven't received information important for public, and nobody was made accountable for that. It is time to finally activate the responsibility mechanisms for breach of law and implementation of the Commissioner's Decisions.
According to the proclaimed principles of work transparency, as well as of e-government, the authorities should make available as many data as possible, also by public presentment of available databases and through Internet. We can not be satisfied with the existing level of electronic communication of our government and the public that classify us at the very bottom of the European ladder.
It is necessary to eliminate all the mechanisms of implicit censorship. For instance, a large number of criminal charges of public officials „due to infringement of honor and respect“ against the journalists and possible consequences can not be easily harmonized with the European standards in this field. Those instances, even after changes in the penal legislation still, even indirectly, represent a threat of imprisonment for journalists, which is unacceptable. By changes of the law responsibility for this kind of „offences“ should be transferred from the penal into civil-legal responsibility sphere.
Finally, it should be undisputable that the priority state obligation is to provide the journalists with elementary personal security, as well as to punish the ones who put it in danger. Cases in which for several years after the death of a journalist, not only that a penalty is missing, but the public still doesn't know if and what the bodies in charge did, are discouraging and it is of utmost importance that the case of recent bombing attack should have outcome which is rightfully expected.“
