News

On December 9 and 10, 2024, two roundtables were held as part of the public debate on the Draft Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, the first in the hall of the City Assembly of Niš, and the second in the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade.

In addition to the members of the Special Working Group for the Preparation of the Draft Law, which includes the Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government Jelena Žarić Kovačević, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance Milan Marinović with the Assistant Secretary General of the Commissioner's Office Slavoljupka Pavlović, representatives of the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance and the Republic Secretariat for Legislation, the round tables were also attended by representatives of non-governmental organizations, who discussed the solutions contained in the draft law with the members of the Special Working Group.

The public debate on the Draft Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance is on until December 23, 2024.

Commissioner Milan Marinović and Deputy Commissioner Sanja Unković are participating in the European Workshop on Personal Data Protection Case Management, held in Tallinn, Estonia, from 4 to 6 December 2024.

The workshop discusses cases in video surveillance, artificial intelligence, impact assessment, complex case management, particularly sensitive personal data, personal data processing on social networks, new technologies, and information security.

On Tuesday, November 26, 2024, lecturers from the Office of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Sofija Radojicic, Marin Cetinic, and Marko Milosevic, held training on access to information of public importance and personal data protection for the personnel of the Rectorate and faculties within the University of Kragujevac. The main reason was to raise awareness about the proper application of these laws in light of the increased requests for access to information filed through lawyers with the power of attorney and the challenges in the appropriate application of personal data protection.

The training was attended by 40 employees, mostly faculty secretaries, information officers, and data protection officers. Among the topics standing out were the correct interpretation of deadlines for acting on requests for access to information, exercising the right to data protection, and its possible restrictions. This training was also used to announce the soon opening of the Office of the Commissioner in Kragujevac, facilitating more direct access to the institution and improving the exercise of rights under our jurisdiction. The Commissioner has so far held training courses at the Universities of Belgrade and Novi Sad, with invitations sent to all state universities expecting more training courses aimed at this target group by the end of the year.

On November 25, 2024, Commissioner Milan Marinović and Deputy Commissioner Sanja Unković completed their lecture series within the Studies For Knowledge Innovation program – The Right To Personal Data Protection, implemented at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade.

This is the first study program for knowledge innovation at some faculty in the Republic of Serbia dealing with personal data protection. Lecturers in these studies include professors of the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, the Deputy Commissioner, and other prominent experts from practice.