Source: Blic
Our law on free access to information foresees that ''everybody has a right to have access to information of public significance'', as well as that ''everybody has this right under equal conditions, regardless of citizenship, residence, i.e. place of living or personal characteristics such as race, religion, national or ethnical classification, sex etc.'' Such explicitly democratic and liberal approach enables a wide range of subjects to ask the commissioner for information for the protection of such rights. And in accordance with this, citizens and foreigners, people under age and adults, people of different nationalities, local and foreign companies, reporters and mass media, non-government organizations, political parties, and even agencies of the authorities revert to the commissioner.Although the formulation ''everybody has a right'' does not exclude this, the more and more frequent reverting of the agencies of the authorities to the commissioner deserve special attention, because besides pointing out to problems with free access to information, this also points out to other problems, not less significant. The fact that as much as a third of the total number of complaints submitted to the commissioner from one of our greatest cities are complaints lodged by the agencies of the authorities against the agencies of the authorities is indicative and of concern, from the standpoint of normal functioning of the authorities. The government must activate mechanisms of responsibility by which it will force those who do not want to, to give up their monopoly and realise that free access to information is not just formally guaranteed, but is a condition of vital significance for the materialization of rights and execution of obligations of others. Rodoljub Sabic, commissioner for information
