Press Releases

November 20, 2023

Dear Children, you are growing up today in a world where technology is an indispensable part of your daily life. The Internet, social networks, and smart devices provide many benefits, such as entertainment or learning, but they also carry risks, especially when it comes to privacy.

Of course, new technologies should be used, but one can never be too careful and responsible. Very often you are not aware of how much personal data is shared through social networks or online games. Always think carefully about what data you are about to share online, or what information you are about to give or grant access to e.g. when creating a profile on a social network or when downloading an application or game. Avoid publishing information such as name and surname, address, phone number, or personally identifiable details that could be used for purposes you don’t want to (just as you wouldn’t tell a stranger you met on the street in the real world).

Before publishing or sharing photos or videos, think about both yourself and the people near and dear to you, family members, friends, etc. Photos and videos can disclose a lot of information about you (eg where you live, which school you attend, or a park or cafe you go to, etc.), so it's important to be careful when sharing them. Think, would you put a photo of yourself that you have already shared on your social media profile, e.g. in the school hall or on a billboard on the street for everyone to see? And, not to forget, the internet is much wider, it is not just limited to school, street, city...

Over time, think about who will be able to see your posts containing personal data, ie. have you ensured that the content you share can only be seen by those you allowed to or is it available to a wider circle of people, and also have you secured the profile itself with a sufficiently strong password that will not be easily broken (e.g. date of birth, name someone close to you, the name of a pet, etc.).

Also, think do you want the jokes you share among your friends, your gettings-ready to go out, the recorded moment when you were fooling around alone or with friends… to be seen one day by your friends' parents, your teachers, etc, or maybe by someone else whose opinion you will care a lot about, and also by doing this whether you were violating someone else's privacy without their given consent.

By sharing information about yourself, you could expose yourself to various problems, because your data can be misused by those who do not have the best intentions, also put yourself in real danger or expose yourself to the comments of malicious people.

Always remember that what is once posted on the internet can stay there forever. Try to understand that some posts can have long-term consequences for your future.

Talk to your parents, older brothers, sisters, or some other trusted older person about online safety. Sometimes they may have helpful tips that could help you.

Also, take a look at the brochure "Personal data is our treasure, how can we protect it?" (Serbian language only) which was published on the Commissioner’s website.

As a society, it’s our responsibility to provide a safe environment for children to grow up and develop. This includes proper protection of their privacy. Raising awareness of the importance of protecting children's privacy should be a continuous process involving children, parents, schools, technology companies, and society as a whole.

Commissioner Milan Marinović and his Expert Office wish you a happy World Children's Day.

On November 8, 2023. in the organization of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection and SIGMA, a roundtable was held on challenges and potential solutions to the proper functioning of the system of access to public information in Serbia, in which representatives of SIGMA, the Government, Ministries of Health, Education, European Integration, Justice, and Public Administration and Local Self-Government, representatives of the judiciary and representatives of the Bar Associations of Serbia and Vojvodina.

All present agreed that in Serbia at the moment there is a widespread abuse of the right to access information of public importance and that this problem must be solved as soon as possible. All participants in the discussion from the Republic of Serbia agreed that, as one of the measures to solve the said problem, changes should be made to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance and that all competent authorities must cooperate in solving this problem.

"Every year, we have celebrated this Day with the idea of promoting the Law, pointing out problems, proposing some solutions, and rewarding the deserving ones. Unfortunately, this year we are in a situation where, instead of talking about the realization of rights, we are talking about abuse that burdens all public authorities in their work, especially schools, kindergartens, centers for social work, local communities, those with the least financial and personnel capacity to carry out regular duties, and especially to respond to a large number of requests for free access to information," said Commissioner Milan Marinović in his introductory speech during the celebration of the International Right to Know Day, held today at the Serbian Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

He also pointed out that this phenomenon is gaining momentum due to the change of the Administrative Court position by which information seekers and appellants have the right to legal expense reimbursement. By the end of September, on this basis, the said authorities court-ordered to collect 22,000,000 dinars. He also emphasized that the Commissioner's Office is now doing all in its power to prevent these abuses, wanting to "return the right to access information to its purpose". Commissioner Marinović also said that this is the first year that the amendments to the law are implemented, which include a more significant number of authorities that publish their Work Information Booklet on the new Unified Information System of Information Booklets platform. "Amendments to the law provide the punishment for "administrative silence" and so far we have collected 5,000,000 dinars in fines on this basis," said Commissioner Marinović.

In addition to Commissioner Marinović, representatives of foreign delegations in Serbia also participated in the introductory speech: the Head of OSCE Mission to Serbia, H.E. Jan Braathu, Acting Head of the Mission of the Council of Europe Office in Belgrade Nadia Ćuk, Manuel Munteanu, Head of Press and Information of the EU Delegation to Serbia and the USAID to Serbia Mission Director Brooke Isham. In their introductory speeches, they exchanged opinions on the adopted amendments to the Law, unanimously spotlighting that free access to information is a prerequisite for the accountable work of public authorities.

On this occasion, awards were conferred to authorities for the promotion of the right to free access to information in 2023: in the category of republic authorities - the National Academy for Public Administration; in the category of judicial authorities - the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Smederevo, in the category of local self-government units - the Authorities of the City of Leskovac; in the category of provincial authorities - the Assembly of AP Vojvodina. Since the amendments to the law have expanded the range of government authorities, this year we have also introduced an award for new authorities, such as the category other authorities, won by PUK "Waterworks and sewerage" Subotica. Additionally, two more special awards were established. The Faculty of Law of the University of Kragujevac received the first special award for contribution to education in the field of access to information of public importance, while the second special award for the successful fulfillment of legal obligations under difficult conditions was conferred to the elementary school from Kosovo "Šarski odred", Sevce-Štrpce, bearing in mind that in extremely difficult working conditions they fulfilled their legal obligations, which many authorities from Central Serbia and AP Vojvodina failed to do. We do not have the opportunity to confer the award for special contribution to the affirmation of the right to access to information of public importance every year, but this year we were pleased to confer it to the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM), which has helped numerous authorities at the local level, especially local communities in fulfillment of the legal obligation to publish Work Information Booklets.

Slavoljupka Pavlović, Acting Assistant Secretary-General, presented the new Publication XII – “Positions and Opinions of the Commissioner” while Zlatko Petrović, Acting Assistant Secretary-General, presented the results and experiences from the first year of operation of the Unified Information System of Information Booklets.

Due to the increasingly frequent cases of non-up-to-date and careless attitude of public authorities towards the obligations they have towards the Commissioner compliant with the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, which relates to the timely delivery of all necessary evidence for decision-making in the appeal proceedings, and the usually late response of the authorities only after making a binding, final and enforceable decision of the Commissioner and hence requesting the annulment of the already made decision, the Commissioner warns the public authorities that they are obliged to submit all evidence to the Commissioner within the time limit indicated in its order for the pleading on the appeal, including return receipts and delivery notes as proof of the delivery of the Act to the information seeker, i.e. before deciding on the appeal. Evidence submitted after the adoption of the final, enforceable, and binding decision of the Commissioner cannot be taken into account concerning the adopted decision.

The Commissioner warns the public authorities explicitly that the opposite action, i.e. the untimely authorities' response regarding the Commissioner's orders, can lead to a decision's finding that the appeal is founded and, consequently, to very high appeal proceedings costs for the appellant's representation by a lawyer, and also to misdemeanor liability and misdemeanor prosecution of responsible and authorized persons in public authorities.