Talking about possible misuse of right to access information of public importance, Article 13 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance (Official Gazette of the RS no.120/04), it should be assessed by the first instance body in legal procedure following the submitted specific request, before the Commissioner as the second instance body, taking into consideration all of the available facts and circumstances in relation to the request.  The Commissioner expresses his attitude on this issue in his decision based on possible complaint.

In general, we can, however, agree that a  question of abuse of the right to free access to information of public importance should be asked, whenever the requirements are too vague or they cover extremely bulky documents, or necessitate disproportionately big efforts of the bodies observing the procedure, or unreasonable and frequent requests hinder normal work of those bodies, and at that time the body in power is making extra efforts in the procedure and showing readiness to present  the requested information.  However, having in mind the possibility of potential abuse of provisions of Article 13, they should be interpreted in extremely restrictive manner. As an example, in comparative law, such limitations of rights to free access to information are applied only extremely, but some national legislations do not even know them.

(The answer is contained in the letter sent to a government body, no. 011-00-37/2007-03 of 23.04.2007.)