Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Rodoljub Sabic spoke today with representatives of the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (Nezavisno udruzenje novinara Srbije - NUNS) Vukasin Obradovic, Chairman and Svetozar Rakovic, Secretary General. Topic of the conversation was the role and contribution of journalists and media in achieving free access to information and the need to more quickly and energetically secures conditions for the media to play their role freely and responsibly, in a way adequate and necessary in a democratic society. In relation to that, the Commissioner, Rodoljub Sabic said the following:
„I am satisfied because my collocutors have in the best possible way evaluated the work of the institution of Commissioner for Information and the contribution which I personally contribute by my actions in achieving media freedom. During the talk I have confirmed my readiness and the obligation of the Commissioner for Information and his collaborators to, within objective possibilities’ limits, try their best to help journalists and the media in achieving their rights and functions. He simultaneously evaluated that the journalists and media have by selecting specific, important topics and by focusing attention on them, greatly contributed to affirmation of the right to freely access information of public importance and of the Commissioner’s institution. We have acknowledged that the percentage of complaints submitted to the Commissioner by the journalists and media is not big relative to the total number of complaints, but that their importance due to the selection of topics and publicity is much bigger.
We have once again confirmed consent regarding the necessity that the state should more quickly and more energetically create preconditions for free and responsible action of media and that it is especially important for the authorities to abstain from all mechanisms which are or can become censorship or auto-censorship instruments, or which endanger some fundamental journalists’ rights, like for instance, the right not to reveal the source. We have acknowledged that this, unfortunately wasn’t the case during adopting of the Law on Amendments of the Law on Public Informing and the Law on Electronic Communications, and that it is important to, based on Constitutional Court decisions, but also without waiting for them, eliminate from those laws solutions which are not in line with our Constitution’s provisions and with generally accepted international standards.
We are also in consent regarding the need, that is, the obligation of the authorities to proactively publish much more information about their work, without waiting for someone to ask them so. In relation to that, I have informed the collocutors that in due time I shall, based on Amendments of the Instruction on Publishing the Information Booklet on the Work of Authorities stress the obligation of the authorities to publish in their official electronic presentations all the most important information about their work and in relation to it, and that the Amendments would insist on implementation and on responsibility for lack of it. There is full readiness of NUNS to support this, which I consider to be quite important. Primarily because I am sure that the other journalists’ associations shall do likewise, and the practice so far has shown that the journalists and the media can significantly contribute to affirmation of rights determined by the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance“.
