The Government not to adopt legal solutions that prevent all citizens from the right to access information of public importance
“DEFEND THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION – I DON’T WANT PUBLIC INFORMATION TO BE CLASSIFIED“
Civil society organisations and media are prompting the Government of the Republic of Serbia to withdraw solutions foreseen in the Draft Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance that reduce the achieved level of citizens’ rights. We wish to warn that the foreseen solutions endanger the insight into the work of public institutions that are financed by citizens’ money or that possess significant public resources and that they increase the right of authorities to avoid accountability for the issues regarding the management of public institutions.
The key issue of the Draft Law is the exclusion of a part of companies that dispose with a considerable public property from the obligation to disclose information regarding their work. Another issue is the legalisation of the obstruction of free access to information by introducing the possibility for the authorities to conduct administrative proceedings against the binding, final and enforceable decisions of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection. We wish to draw attention to yet another missed opportunity to foresee a more efficient system of the Commissioner’s decisions enforcement.
With this announcement, we express our intention to act unitedly in defending and promoting the right to free access to information of public importance as a basic means of re-examining the accountability of government representatives towards citizens. We are inviting all interested citizens to join us in the defence of this right by filling out a simple online form with comments on the Draft Law at: http://odbrani.pravona.info before the closing of the public hearing on April 19th.
Proposals and comments for the public hearing
