News

Continuing the activities of raising awareness about the rights under the jurisdiction of the Commissioner, in cooperation with the; Chamber of Healthcare Institutions of Serbia, lecturers Nataša Mirjanić, Marin Cetinić, and Marko Milošević held training sessions for employees in healthcare institutions from the territory of the City of Belgrade on April 22 and 24. The main reason for this systematic activity is the challenges in the application of these two regulations - on the one hand, dealing with a large number of requests for free access to information (submitted by authorized lawyers), and on the other hand, the upcoming regular inspections on the implementation of the Personal Data Protection Law. The aim of the training is greater efficiency in dealing with these requests and avoiding frequent errors noticed so far, while in the field of data protection, the main scope is to eliminate doubts in the application of the provisions of the law under the competence of the Commissioner and the law regulating the healthcare employees activities. So far, the trainings have included several districts in eastern Serbia, and after Belgrade in May, trainings are planned for Vojvodina. Two trainings in Belgrade were attended by fifty persons employed in health institutions.

Also, on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, the fourth consecutive training for the Ministry of Interior (MUP) employees was held, this time in the Police Department of Sremska Mitrovica. The lecture for 57 police chiefs and police officers was held by Aleksandar Kocić Ranđelović from the Commissioner's Office, Sector for Education and Certification and Dragan Obradović from the MUP. The present representatives of the MUP were most interested in which cases data processing for special purposes is illegal and the right to erasure or restriction of processing, which the lecturers tried to explain, not only by answering the questions in terms of the provisions of the law but also providing illustrative examples from practice, raising the interest of those present and increasing interaction between lecturers and police officers.

Commissioner Milan Marinović and Deputy Commissioner Sanja Unković are participating in the regional conference “Euro-Mediterranean experiences in Access to Information” organized by the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the Commission on the Right of Access to Information of the Kingdom of Morocco (CDAI), to promote the norms and standards of the Council of Europe in the area of access to information of public importance.

After the introductory words of the host of the conference, Mr. Omar Seghrouchni, President of CDAI, Ms. Carmen Morte-Gomez, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Rabat, and Ms. Alina Tatarenko, Head of the Division for Cooperation on Freedom of Expression of the Council of Europe, at today’s panel “Mechanisms of access to information: case studies and exchange of experiences” in addition to the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner, other participants were Mrs. Plamenka Bojčeva, Director of the Agency for the Protection of the Right to Access to Information of North Macedonia. Adnene Lassoued, President of the Access to Information Authority of the Republic of Tunisia, Ms. Cassandra Abou Ghazale, Judge of the State Council of the Lebanese Republic, Mr. Gonzalo Gómez de Villalobos, Head of the Appeals Office, Territorial Administration of the Kingdom of Spain, Mr. Ger Deering, Ombudsman and Information Commissioner of the Republic of Ireland, Mr. Nino Mindiashvili, representative of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, and Mr. Alberto Oliveira, President of the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents of the Portuguese Republic. The panel discussed recommendations and good practices for improving citizens’ rights and more efficient execution of the obligations of public authorities. As part of preparations for today’s event, the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner held a series of bilateral meetings with colleagues from European and African countries.