Commissioner for Information of Public Importance has pointed out in his letter addressed to the Government of the Republic of Serbia, that in a short term, after the Proposal of the Police Act, another Law has entered the procedure of the National Assembly, which has been proposed by the Government of the RS, and the solutions presented in it are contravening the solutions of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Interest.         

The Commissioner has evaluated that such proposals raise redundant dilemmas and question the purpose of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Interest.

On that occasion, the Commissioner Mr. Rodoljub Sabic has declared the following:

„As similar Laws in the democratic world, our Law also envisages that a citizen asking information is not obliged to prove that he has an interest for it.

By envisaging the obligation to prove, as in the case of Article 5 of the Proposal of the Police Act and Article  153 of the Proposal of the Law on Violations, “justifiable” or “legitimate” or interest “based on Law”, or “well-founded” interest, unnecessary confusion is made and possibilities are opened for limiting the rights of the citizens.

It would be much better if the proposals of new Laws, in relation to access to information, should contain provisions directing towards the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Interest, instead of controversial solutions.  It is difficult to understand what is the logic of proposing such solutions, because there can be no doubt that in the case of collision, the priority must be given to the  Law on Free Access to Information of Public Interest, representing  lex specialis for the concrete matter.

Anyhow, the Declaration on Access to Information, which has been jointly adopted in December  2004 by the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations for the Freedom of Opining and Expression, the OSCE Representative for the Freedom of Media, and the Special . Rapporteur of the United States Organization for Freedom of Expression, is explicit regarding that in the case of any conflict, the priority should be given to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Interest in relation to all the other laws.

All state bodies should render their contribution to the confirmation of democratic principles contained in the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Interest“, especially the Government and the Assembly."