Source: "Blic"
Fight against corruption, democratic control of the public, transparency of Government's operations, strengthening of independent control institutions - these are the ideas which appear in almost all strategic and action program documents in our country. The majority of citizens also consider them important and the achievement of these ideas is an important element for Serbia's EU accession.
Several laws which were submitted to the Serbian Assembly within the space of only one or two months this summer are very interesting from the aspect of those "commitments". Amendments to the Law on Information caused a great fuss. Still, even after a number of corrections, penalties envisaged under those amendments for infringements and offences committed by journalists and the media not only exceed the general maximum for that kind of offences set under the law, but are even more strict than those envisaged by the Criminal Code.
A Budget System Bill has also been presented. It qualifies for the Guinness Book of Records by at least one of its features: its authors have "succeeded" in not using the word "the public" for a single time in a law containing as many as 113 articles. Unbelievable, is it not?
Amendments to the Criminal Code have also been proposed. Much more strict penalties for threatening civil servants' safety are envisaged. An extremely wide circle of civil servants are "protected", which makes it all the more striking that only leaders of independent control institutions are left out. Indicative, is it not? Regardless of the value and justifiability of such protection.
Finally, the Law on Data Confidentiality has also been proposed. Its main "specificity" is that it does not offer a new, efficient control mechanism, but it restricts the powers of supervisory control bodies in a manner unpreceded in the world. The Commissioner for Information and the Ombudsman, who have until now had ex lege free access to every information necessary for their operations, will in the future need approval for that. And "where necessary" those supervised will also be able to suspend their powers. Believe it or not, even a situation in which the "structures" protect citizens against the Ombudsman is envisaged.
Does anyone think it is possible to implement the said commitments by these proposals?
