The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, Mr. Rodoljub Šabić, and members of the delegation of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, Vitaliano Esposito, Francois Santangelo and Alin Yusanas, had talks today in Belgrade.     

On this occasion, Commissioner Rodoljub Šabić said:

“I have informed the members of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the normative assumptions for the exercise of the right to access information and of the activities and results of the Commissioner for Information and his service to this date. I explained that, under our law, all persons are granted the freedom to access information under equal conditions, regardless of their citizenship, place of permanent or temporary residence or personal features, including race, religion, nationality or ethnicity, gender etc.

The Law prohibits all discrimination and envisages sanctions for violations of the principle of equality, while the Commissioner for Information and his Service ensure that no discrimination on any grounds whatsoever takes place in practice.

Furthermore, I have informed them that, in order to ensure full equality, the Commissioner for Information collaborated with the NGO sector and the OSCE mission in Serbia to prepare and publish issues of the Guide through the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance in all languages of national minorities officially used in the Republic of Serbia and in the language of one ethnicity that is not deemed to be official - Romany, which is fairly uncommon even in countries with much longer democratic tradition.”