Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Rodoljub Sabic, and Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government (MPALSG), Ana Brnabic, met today and discussed several topics in the field of freedom of access to information of public importance and personal data protection.
The Commissioner and the Minister fully agree on the need and importance of proactive disclosure (without special requirements) of as much information about the work of public authorities as possible. In this regard, the Commissioner supported the efforts of MPALSG aimed at the implementation of the initiative "Open Government Partnership" in the Republic of Serbia and promised to provide full assistance and support.
Regarding the recent warning issued by the Commissioner to MPALSG in which it indicated that, as a rule, no one was held liable for violating the Law on Free Access to Information the Minister provided assurances that the current practice would be changed and the liability for breaking the law would be made more stringent and consistently enforced.
Regarding the Commissioner's letter addressed to the Government about the issues associated with amendments to the Decree on Office Management that drew public reactions and were interpreted as the introduction of a new level of secrecy that the Classified Information Law does not recognize, the Minister confirmed that the Ministry is already cooperating with the Commissioner's Office in this process, on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and that the cooperation will certainly be continued. Any amendments to this Decree shall apply exclusively to the distribution of documents within public authorities and not to the exercise of the rights provided for by the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance.
Regarding the Commissioner's warnings about the issue of multi-annual delay of adoption of the necessary amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, the Minister announced that activities in this field would be intensified as soon as possible.
The Minister informed the Commissioner about further plans of as wide application of information and communication technology (ICT) as possible for the purpose of more efficient and more effective exercise of citizens' rights which, inter alia, entails new forms of processing of citizens' personal data or exchange of the data among different public authorities and the establishment of new registers. The Commissioner pointed out in this regard, supporting in principle all ideas that are in the function of better information and exercise of all rights of citizens, that serious attention must be paid to security and protection of citizens' personal data against possible compromises, and the Minister urged the Commissioner to submit all its observations in this regard and provided assurances that serious attention would be devoted to these issues.
