The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection spoke today with the Minister of Interior Ivica Dacic about certain open questions related to the fulfillment of the right to free access to information in the Ministry of Interior’s possession. A separate topic of conversation was the need to establish normative conditions in order to fulfill the right to free access to information, as well as limit that right, in accordance with contemporary democratic standards.

In this regard, the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic stated the following:

“The reason for initiating this conversation was my belief that it is necessary for the Ministry of Interior to stop applying the Rulebook on official and state secrets and the manner of keeping and disclosing official and state secrets, and to replace it with a suitable legal act which would adhere to modern, law-abiding standards. The aforementioned Rulebook, which was adopted in the 1970s, is archaic, completely irrelevant, and, in essence, unconstitutional, so limiting the right of the public by referring to it cannot be accepted at all.

Minister Dacic agreed with my evaluation completely. Immediately after the meeting he sent in a request to appropriate departments asking to them to stop applying the aforementioned Rulebook, and asked them to start drafting a new legal act which would be harmonized with the principles of the Law on Data Confidentiality and the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance. Until the act is adopted, the needs for access to data will be regulated by applying existing legal provisions. Among other things, it was agreed to have the representatives of the Commissioner for Information represented in the work group that would be preparing the new act.

We also spoke about some other, not so important, issues related to the free access to information problematics; above all, the need to respond to Commissioner’s decisions more promptly. We both agreed that the Ministry of Interior, which is a large system with over 50.000 employees and numerous information in its possession, faces very specific problems. In this regard, we agreed that it is good that, despite the existence of certain problems, the Ministry of Interior is investing considerable efforts in order to improve its communication with the public. More and more information about the Ministry of Interior’s work, including the work of its organizational structures throughout the country, are available to the public. It is commendable that the Ministry has done a lot in this regard, including establishing a separate organizational unit, and that it continues to work on the education and training of its personnel. We both agreed that these activities should continue, as this would lead to even better results in the future.”