Out of the total number of claims for safeguard of rights, that is complaints, which media and NGOs addressed to the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, vast majority, more than 95% were submitted due to “silence of the administration”, that is, due to lack of any response.

With reference to this, the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic pointed to the following:

„Government bodies have explicit legal obligation do act according to the claims demanding access to information of public importance. They have the right, of course, only according to the conditions stipulated in the Law, to deny such a claim, but they do not have the right to ignore it.

The Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, in Article 46, stipulates that in case a government body denies access to information of public importance, without passing a relevant resolution, the responsible official shall be punished by 50,000 CSD fine.

The Commissioner's Department shall notify the respective ministry responsible for information about cases which imply existence of a breach, with a request that the ministry, in accordance to the authority stated in Article 45 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, performs inspection, determines the identity of the responsible officials and starts tortuous proceedings with the appropriate authority”