News

On Friday, October 18, 2024, in Čačak, at the invitation and in the organization of the Association "Serbian Inspectors’ Network", lecturers from the Commissioner's Office Nataša Mirjanić and Aleksandar Kocić gave a lecture to the present inspectors on the application of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance.

Inspectors at all levels (republic, provincial, and local) attended the training, showing a great interest in this field, and confirmed by the number of 126 persons in attendance. Emphasis was placed on the importance of publishing information about their work, which is considered information of public importance, and on the proper handling of requests for access to information of public importance.

 

On October 17, 2024, Commissioner Milan Marinović and Deputy Commissioner Sanja Unković held the first lecture at the Studies for Innovation of Knowledge in the Field of Personal Data Protection, organized by the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade in cooperation with the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection.

After the opening address of the Study for Knowledge Innovation headmaster, Prof. Dr. Dušan Popović, and vice dean for International Cooperation prof. Dr. Marko Jovanovića, the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner introduced the Study participants in a vividly interesting way to the importance of the right to personal data protection, basic legal terms, the powers of the Commissioner, and the internal organization of the Commissioner’s Office.

Teaching at Studies for Knowledge Innovation includes more than 50 hours of interactive lectures and workshops that will be held at the Faculty of Law.

As part of his activities to improve the application of the right to access to information of public importance, on Saturday, October 12, 2024, Commissioner Milan Marinović held a lecture on the topic “Abuse of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance”, at the Annual Counseling of Judges from Misdemeanor courts and Misdemeanor Appellate Court, held in Zlatibor and organized by the Association of Misdemeanor Court Judges in the Republic of Serbia and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

On October 14, 2024, the Commissioner held a lecture to a large number of lawyers, economists, and other officials from various institutions in the Republic of Serbia on the topic “Access to information of public importance, problems in practice and how to overcome them”, as part of the XXVI Meeting of Institutions, in the organization of the Educational Information Center (Obrazovni informator) in Zlatibor from October 14 to 17, 2024.

Commissioner Milan Marinović, deputy Commissioner Sanja Unković, and acting Assistant Secretary-General in the Sector for Harmonization Dragana Stojković participate from 09 to 11 October in the session of the Working Group for the development of the Action Plan for implementing the Personal Data Protection Strategy for 2023 to 2030, in Divcibare. The Working Group's goal is to adopt the said Action Plan as soon as possible to begin implementing the Strategy and, as one of the first activities, start working on the necessary changes to the Law on Personal Data Protection.

In the session of this Working Group participants, in addition to representatives of the line Ministry of Justice and the Commissioner's Office, there were also representatives of the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the Office for IT and eGovernment, the National Academy for Public Administration, the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, representative of the Academic Community and international expert in the field of personal data protection. The Working Group's work was supported by the German Organization for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the EU Delegation to Serbia.

Commissioner Milan Marinović and Deputy Commissioner Sanja Unković participated in the International Forum of Ombudsmen and Independent Authorities engaged in human rights protection, held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The Conference’s main topic is climate change and the protection of human rights. The Commissioner was one of the panelists on a panel dedicated to free access to information related to climate change. In addition to the Commissioner, panelists from Georgia, the Philippines, Mexico, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and a representative of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Serbia participated in this panel, which aroused great interest. As part of the visit to Azerbaijan, in addition to participating in the said forum, the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner held a series of bilateral meetings with representatives of other independent authorities.