Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, has expressed his gratitude in public to Ljiljana Smajlovic, Nadezdi Gace and Dinko Gruhonjic, the presidents of AJS (UNS), IAJS (NUNS) and IAJV (NDNV) for their good wishes and support expressed on occasion of the fifth anniversary of his work. The anniversary will not be marked with a manifestation, so the Commissioner would like to use this opportunity to thank others who have sent their congratulations and wishes for his successful work.
On occasion of five years of work, Rodoljub Sabic, the Commissioner, has stated the following:
“The support and trust of the journalist have all this time been a very important prerequisite for building the institution, which started its operation five years ago completely anonymous, and in conditions which were below the minimum level. In that period, almost 7.500 cases have been registered, and over 6.500 have been resolved. Such a large, ever-growing caseload doubtlessly indicates the increase of the citizen’s trust. And a great number of awards granted to the Commissioner himself are actually awards for the operation of the whole institution. But, it is time to start viewing the advances in exercising the freedom of access to information through the reduction in the number of complaints. That is why in collaboration with the Ombudsman, the Anti-Corruption Agency and some line Ministries, I will insist on the obligation of public authorities to offer to the public as much as possible information regarding their operation, proactively, by publishing it on the Internet.
That would have to yield useful effects in the fight against abuses and corruption, and also in the form of more rational and responsible work, better informed public, and of course, less complaints to the Commissioner.
In the coming year the Commissioner will direct special attention to the field of personal data protection within his powers. The previous year, with exemption of the activities undertaken by the Commissioners in the absence of the basic staffing and other resources, has been very poorly used by other authorities who were to give their own contribution. Due to the obvious absence of concept and omissions of the responsible to draw certain moves that had to be drawn, the Commissioner prepared a draft of a suitable strategy in collaboration with the EU experts, and submitted it to the Government, back in the summer, and it is unfortunately still without effect. I expect the Government to adopt that document, or a similar one, as it is important for realization of very important objectives regarding human rights and especially the process of Serbia’s European integrations. I am content to be able to say that, in the context of those objectives, in the course of the next year, for the first time, the Government will provide the necessary budgetary and staffing prerequisites to the Commissioner’s institution, which can enable serious work on realization of these goals.“
