Press Releases

The Commissioner once again reminds all authorities that they are obliged to submit an annual report for 2022 to the Commissioner by January 31, 2023, on the actions taken to implement the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance.

In case the authority fails to submit an annual report to the Commissioner, the Commissioner is authorized to submit a request for the initiation of misdemeanor proceedings against the head of that authority.

The Commissioner invites all authorities to fulfill their legal obligations promptly through the Portal for submitting annual reports of public authorities, at the web address: https://izvestaji.poverenik.rs .

"With the adoption of the Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, the Commissioner was allowed to open offices outside of its Head Office so that all citizens of Serbia have equal access to this institution." Today, we are opening the first regional office of the Commissioner in Novi Sad," said Commissioner Milan Marinović at the official opening. He pointed out that until now the citizens of Belgrade were somewhat privileged in the possibility of exercising their rights under the jurisdiction of the Commissioner because they could personally more quickly and easily file requests to the Commissioner and get information about their rights. With the opening of the office in Novi Sad, the citizens of Vojvodina will now have the same equal possibility.

"I want to mention that soon with the help of leading people from the regional centers of Niš and Kragujevac, we will open the other two announced offices. Thus, the right to free access to information of public importance and personal data protection will be equally available to all citizens throughout Serbia," Commissioner Marinović said at the end of his presentation.

The official opening of the Commissioner's first regional office was attended by representatives of the local self-government, the president of the Misdemeanor Court in Novi Sad, and representatives of the media.

The Commissioner reminds all authorities that by Article 43 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance ("Official Gazette of RS", No. 120/2004, 54/2007, 104/2009, 36/2010, and 105/2021), until January 31, 2023, are obliged to submit to the Commissioner an annual report for 2022 on the actions of that authority, undertaken for the purpose of implementing this law.

Article 3 of the same law stipulates that a public authority, in terms of this law, is:

1) An authority of the Republic of Serbia;

2) An authority of the autonomous province;

3) An authority of the municipality, city, city municipality, and the city of Belgrade;

4) A public company, institution, organization, and other legal entity, established by regulation or decision of the authority referred to in points 1) to 3) of this paragraph;

5) A company whose founder or member is the Republic of Serbia, an autonomous province, a local self-government unit, or one or more authorities from points 1) to 4) of this paragraph with 50% or more stocks or ownership share in total, that is, with more than half of the members in the board management;

6) A company whose founder or member is one or more authorities from points 1) to 5) of this paragraph with 50% or more stocks or ownership share in total;

7) A legal entity whose founder is a company from points 5) or 6) of this paragraph;

8) A legal person or an entrepreneur who performs activities of general interest, in the terms of the law regulating the position of public companies, in relation to the information connected to the exercise of such activities;

9) A legal or natural person who has public powers, in relation to the information connected to the exercise of such powers;

10) A legal person that, in the year to which the requested information relates, generated more than 50% of their revenue from one or more authorities from points 1) to 7) of this paragraph, in relation to the information connected to the activity financed by those revenues, except the church and religious community.

Compliant with the law, the Commissioner issued a Decision on the form and method of submitting the annual report of public authorities on actions undertaken for the purpose of implementing the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance ("Official Gazette of the RS", number 10/22).

In case the authority fails to submit the annual report from paragraph 1 of this article to the Commissioner, the Commissioner is authorized to submit a request to initiate misdemeanor proceedings for the offense from Article 46, paragraph 1, point 9) of this law.

The Commissioner invites all authorities to fulfill their legal obligations promptly through the Portal for submitting annual reports of public authorities, at the web address: https://izvestaji.poverenik.rs.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection informs the public that he has conducted extraordinary inspection supervision of the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection ("Official Gazette of the RS", No. 87/2018) by the Data Controller of the City Administration of the City of Belgrade due to processing of personal data of persons up to 19 years of age, employees and part-time hired employees in primary and secondary schools on the territory of Belgrade for the purpose of giving out free vouchers, on November 7, 2022.

On November 7, 2022, the City Administration of the City of Belgrade, Secretariat for Education and Children's Welfare, sent a letter to the directors of preschool institutions and primary and secondary schools informing them that they only need to submit data on the number of children, students, employees, and part-time hired employees in those institutions, exclusively in the form of signed and certified statements of directors guaranteeing data reliability, no later than November 9, 2022, by 3 p.m., through the Secretariat's clerk office.

After the inspection, the Commissioner's authorized persons determined that in this particular case, the City Administration of the City of Belgrade, the Secretariat for Education and Children's Welfare, does not process the personal data of persons up to 19 years of age, nor employees and part-time hired employees in preschool institutions, elementary and secondary schools on the territory of Belgrade.