Following increased public interest and frequent requests from journalists and the media in connection with the "Report on Regulation, Organisation and Functioning of the Security System put in Place to protect the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia", which was produced by a special Committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Zarko Korac after the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection recalls it is now eight whole years since he addressed a letter to the Serbian Government in which he called for a review of the Government's "decision" to keep the information presented in the Report inaccessible to the public.

At the time, in August 2008, the Commissioner had to dismiss a complaint (due to lack of jurisdiction, because the Government's decisions cannot be appealed before the Commissioner) which had been duly filed by a journalist of B92 against a "decision" made by the Government headed by Mirko Cvetkovic as the then Prime Minister; however, in his letter to the Government the Commissioner highlighted a number of inconsistencies in connection with the confidentiality of that document, including in particular the fact that the judicial proceeding which could, at least in theory, be influenced by such disclosure of information had been ended with a final and enforceable judgement, as well as the logical and justified assumption that the confidentiality status assigned at the time of assassination was not necessarily warranted many years later.

The Commissioner still stands by his opinion. In this context, he also notes that, in the meantime, pursuant to a constitutional appeal filed by the information requester, in 2013 the Constitutional Court also upheld the Commissioner's stand, noting that "the fact that a document is legally classified as top secret is not in itself sufficient to deny public access and any such classification must be based on a legitimate interest which needs to be protected."

The Commissioner also underscores that, regardless whether the document had been properly classified at all or whether, at the very least, this was done subsequently (as required under the subsequently enacted Law on Data Confidentiality), it is undisputable that the Government has a duty to review the confidentiality status even without a specific request to do so, in accordance with Article 22 of the said Law (pursuant to which even the highest level of confidentiality must be reviewed at least once every 10 years).

The Commissioner believes it to be self-evident, just as he did 8 years ago, that the importance of the information contained in the said Report both for the professional community and the general public fully justifies and indeed mandates the need to review its "confidentiality" and declassify it.