The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic deems that the pending removal of confidentiality mark from the information regarding the case of Draza MIhajlovic should be the first step towards faster changes in the Government's attitude towards information which has been withheld from the public, people concerned and their families for decades.
In this context the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection stated the following:
„This particular case is understandably imposing, but far from being the only one. There are many cases on which, for reasons yet unknown, information is still unavailable. Their legal and historical estimate should be left to legal institutions and scientists, but information on them should be made available to people entitled to that. In my opinion, there is a necessity and this is a good chance for the Government to reevaluate the magnitude of the fact that our country is the only one which has had a significantly different attitude towards handling dossiers of secret services of previous regime from practically all other transitional countries; and also to reevaluate the necessity to change this attitude.
Government's attitude towards freedom of access to information and its restriction i.e. confidentiality is one of major preconditions and simultaneously a measure of democratization of a society.
Thankfully, this attitude is changing in our country as well, but it is not good that this is happening more slowly than it could and should.
It is evident that problems long observed in this fields are not being solved, and that their resolving is being postponed, even when solutions are offered.
I would like to draw your attention once again to two good draft laws which were prepared and forwarded to the National Assembly almost a year and a half ago-Amendments to the Draft Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance and the Draft Law on Classification of Information.
Draft laws were prepared by the nongovernmental sector supported by signatures of dozens of thousands of citizens, in a citizen's initiative, in accordance with the Constitution, and forwarded to the National Assembly for enactment.
More than enough time has passed since then, for the Government to offer better solutions, if it deems itself capable to do so. The fact that this has not happened, and that the draft laws offered by the citizen's initiative, which contain good solutions, harmonized with contemporary democratic standards in this field, haven't been considered at all, indicate, to say the least, an inadequate attitude towards problems which must not be ignored''.
