On 17 November 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) proclaimed 28 September as the International Day for Universal Access to Information and on 15 October 2019 it was also proclaimed by the UN General Assembly.

The respect for the freedom of opinion and expression was thus emphasised, including the right to seek, obtain and declare information, which was contained both in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights.

What is information of public importance?

According to the valid Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance (Official Gazette of RS no. 120/2004, 54/2007, 104/2009 and 36/2010, “Law“), information of public importance shall mean information held by a public authority body, created during work or related to the work of the public authority body, contained in a document, and related to everything that the public has a justified interest to know. In order to be considered as information of public importance, it is not relevant for an information whether its source is a public authority body or another person, the carrier of information (paper, tape, film, electronic media etc.) that contains the document with information is not relevant either, nor the date of information generation, manner of learning of the information, or other similar information properties.

Legal presumptions of justified interest

Justified interest of the public to know is in place whenever there are information held by an authority body that pertain to jeopardizing i.e. protection of population health and the environment; when it comes to other information held by an authority body, it is deemed that there is a justified interest of the public to know, unless the authority body proves otherwise.

How to institute procedure?

The procedure for exercising this right is instituted by submitting an application for free access to information of public importance to an authority body, and such application needs to contain:

• name of the authority body,
• name, surname and address of the applicant, as well as
• as precise description of the information sought as possible.

The authority body shall be obliged immediately and no later than 15 days upon the receipt of application to inform the applicant of information possession, to submit for insight the document containing the requested information and/or to issue or send a copy of such document. The document copy is sent to the seeker on the day it leaves the clerk’s office of the authority body that the information was sought from.

The role of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Serbia (“Commissioner”) is an autonomous state authority, independent in performing its competences, established for exercising the right of access to information of public importance that are held by public authority bodies.

According to the provisions of the Law, the Commissioner shall, among other:

• monitor the respecting of obligations of public authority bodies as established by this law and report to the public and National Assembly thereof;
• initiate the adoption and amendment of regulations for implementation and improvement of the right of access to information of public importance;
• deliberate upon complaint against decisions of authority bodies that violate the rights regulated by this law;

The Commissioner may also institute a procedure for assessment of constitutionality and legality of laws and other general acts.

According to the Commissioner, the number of complaints in 2019 increased by 57% compared to 2018, whereas the largest number relates to the silence of the administration. Therefore, the Commissioner deems that the future amendments to the Law should include sanctions for such actions i.e. lack of action, as well as powers for the Commissioner to enact misdemeanour order in such situations.

This article is to be considered as exclusively informative, with no intention to provide legal advice.
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