The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection warns all the entities that deal with processing data related to citizens' health status of the obligation to treat these data in the manner proscribed by law.

The Law on Personal Data Protection, and in particular the Law on the Protection of Patients' Rights, stipulate expressly that the data related to health status fall into the category of the so-called particularly sensitive data. The Law on the Protection of Patients' Rights proscribes the obligation of handling this data as confidential, and expressly prohibits the disclosure to other parties. Only informed written consent of a patient or a court decision can constitute exemptions from the duty to maintain the confidentiality of this data.

In extremely worrying, almost grotesque, contradiction with these provisions is the frequent public appearance of data related to health status, in print and electronic media. In this regard, the Commissioner urges the media to respect their own journalists' code of ethics and to refrain from publishing information that violate citizens' privacy. He furthermore particularly warns the public authorities and medical institutions (which are the most common potential source of these data) of the liability proscribed by law.

As proscribed in both the Law on Personal Data Protection and more specifically in the Law on the Protection of Patients' Rights, handling of data related to health status of citizens is not only punishable as a misdemeanour with the fine of 50,000 dinars for a responsible natural person and with the fine of up to one million dinars for an institution, but also as a criminal offense pursuant to Article 46 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia which proscribes the imprisonment sentence of up to three years.

The Commissioner shall continue to work on protection of the rights of citizens, within his powers as laid down in the Law on Personal Data Protection. Furthermore, since the Public prosecutor's office and not the Commissioner is responsible and authorized for the detection of perpetrators of criminal offences, initiation and conduct of criminal proceedings, and that the supervision over the implementation of the Law on the Protection of Patients' Rights is under the competence of the Ministry of Health, the Commissioner deems it necessary for these authorities to contribute to forming of an appropriate attitude towards the rights of citizens in this field and to ensuring the accountability of those who violate them.