The commissioner for the information of public importance and personal data protection, in the letter addressed to all Mayors and Presidents of the municipalities warned that the introduction of administrative taxes on the requests for free access to the information of public information would represent the illegal restriction of citizens on the exercise of this right.

The Commissioner asked the local authorities to refrain from making or adopting by-laws which envisage such fees, or, if they already adopted them, to repeal them immediately.

In this regard, the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic said the following:

"Regarding the  contacts of citizens and NGOs suggesting that some local authorities intend to introduce or have already introduced special administrative fees to the requests  for free access to  the information of public importance, I have warned the mayors and presidents of municipalities of the obvious illegality and unlawfulness of such possible actions.

The Law on Free Access to Information,  ensures by the Article 17. that the access to the documents containing the information of public interest is free of charge, and for the  copy of the document containing the requested information, the authority may charge only the necessary costs of copying. And even the necessary costs can not be determined or charged freely, but only in accordance with the existing regulation on the amount of the necessary costs of issuing copies of documents on which the information of public importance are located.

The Law on Republic Administrative Fees, Tariff No.1. point 4. expressly regulates that the administrative fee is not charged for the requests for access to information of public importance.

Accordingly, a different procedure for determining the cost of exercising the right on free access to the information of public importance of the generalact of the Assembly of the municipality or city is in direct contradiction with the above cited statutory provisions, and possible use of such by-laws would have a direct adverse impact on the realization of human rights, that is guaranteed by the Constitution and the law.

I expect local authorities to respect the laws and comply with this warning, that is the suggestion. In any case, I asked to be informed about the situation in relation to this issue in their municipalities and cities, as soon as possible, so that I could undertake other measures  to protect the citizens' rights envisaged by the Constitution or laws. "