Press Releases

"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.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection expresses his deepest condolences to the families of the innocent victims of the unspeakable violence at the "Vladislav Ribnikar" Elementary School in Belgrade and hopes for a successful and prompt recovery of all those injured.

On this occasion, the Office of the Commissioner appeals to the media and competent authorities to respect the right to privacy and the right to personal data protection of all persons affected by this tragic event in these difficult times for our entire society and to take all possible measures so that such tragedies never happen again.