Commissioner for Information of Public Importance Rodoljub Sabic said that protection of people who stood up against abuses and corruption in their environments and come into conflict with formal or informal secrets in that way was of huge importance for improvement of freedom to access to information and for success in the fight against corruption. Warning that such people as a rule faced unpleasant consequences, the Commissioner said that the management of the public enterprise “Putevi Srbije” undoubtedly made an important move by reinstating of the dismissed worker who gave a major contribution to the uncovering of the “road mafia”. In connection with this, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said the following:

“I talked this morning to Zoran Drobnjak, Director General of “Srbija Putevi”, under the “campaign” for assistance to insider Goran Milosevic, which I initiated by texts published in certain media. My collocutor fully agreed that Goran Milosevic was, regardless of formal excuses, dismissed at the time of former management of “Srbija Putevi” just because he started to point out to the “road mafia” in the public and because he wanted to obtain documents which proved robbery by invoking the Law on Free Access to Information and requesting assistance from the Commissioner for Information. The most important thing is that our conversation was finished by Mr. Drobnjak's guarantee that Goran Milosevic would be reinstated in “Putevi Srbije”.

Such move of the public enterprise “Putevi Srbije” should be welcomed because its value would be twofold. Not only will it help the man and his family, because they were jeopardized when he lost his job through no fault of his own, but it will also send a good message of universal importance. By dismissing Mr. Milosevic, the former management sent at that time a harsh, threatening message to all people who were ready to and were thinking about taking the action against abuses and corruption in their environments. It is undoubtedly very important to annul this message after almost three years of fight.

I think that this event is also a good occasion to remind ourselves about the need to eliminate by laws any possibility that people suffer any negative consequences because they stood against corruption and crime in their environments. In connection with this, I would like to remind you that the Law on Secret Data Classification and the Amending Law on Free Access to Information have been submitted to the Serbian Assembly a year ago according to the Constitution, as the civil initiative, supported by several dozen thousands of citizens' signatures. The enactment of these Laws would improve considerably the legal status of insiders, but, unfortunately, it is extremely uncertain when and whether they will be on the agenda of the National Assembly.”