The analsis of addressing citizens and media to Commissioner for the Information of Public Importance, among other things, presents the presence of certain number of demands for the protection of rights, that is, complaints which show justified public interest, Commission, due to legally established rights, cannot fulfil. Due to that Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic has made the following statement:
"Basically, there are two groups of such demands. For both demands Commissioner is not authorized, however in all other things, relevant legal situations are rather different.
In the first group are demands for the protection of rights, that is, complaints about the operations of six government authorities, against which, pursuant to Article 22 page 2 Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, complaint cannot be made to Commissioner. We are talking here about Parliament, the President of the Republic, the Government of the Republic, Constitution Court, Supreme Court and Republic public prosecutor. However, this does not mean that Law does not refer to the all authorities, or that there is no possibility that citizens cannot use their protection of rights. Law is applied to all those authorities in full capacity; however, the protection of rights is not made by complaint to Commission, but to the managing board before Supreme Court.
There is a severe problem about the other group of demands. Those demands refer to the information which is possessed by the authorities of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. It is much worse situation when it comes to the fulfilling of the rights to the free access to information. Law of the Free Access to Information of Public Importance, as a republic law, does not refer to them. Therefore, in this case, not only that this is not under the authority of Commission, but there is no authority which is authorized to protect the right of free access to information, furthermore, there is no established legal way to them.
It is essential to change such state. There are frequent situations where there is significant public interest for a lot of information connected to or which occurred during the operation of authorities of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The legitimacy of such interest is, in a democratic society, undisputable. Therefore, it is rather important that authorities of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, as soon as possible, establish the ways and enable fulfilling the rights to free access to information that they possess."
