Source: "Blic"

Previous Draft Law on Data Confidentiality submitted to Serbian Assembly

Amendments to the Law, drafted on the basis of severe criticism from the expert community, were not included in the Draft Law submitted to the Assembly. Any changes to the text of the Law will now be possible only through amendments.

Marija Males

After the Draft Law on Data Confidentiality caused a storm and after Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, and Sasa Jankovic, the Republic Ombudsman, criticized it and the Ministry of Justice promised to amend it, the Serbian Government submitted the Draft Law to the parliamentary procedure without a single amendment.

Source: Blic

Almost two years ago, in order to help the journalists and the public in general in exercising the right to freely access information, on the website www.poverenik.org.rs Authority Catalogue has been published (of public authorities). That is not a pretentious analytical document, but more of a directory, an inventory list with around 11,000 subjects performing some type of power, or spending public money. That includes on the state level six so-called top authorities, 24 ministries, 18 independent and regulatory bodies,  23 agencies, 16 republic bureaus, 10 directorates, seven funds and forty  „others" and additional eighty-something companies with public authorizations or majority state capital. But even the „directory" provokes questions requesting answers. Why for instance, together with the Ministry of Mining and Energy we also have Agencies for Energy, for Energy Efficiency and for Mining; together with the Ministry of Education, there is Institute for Enhancing Education and Training, but also Institute for Evaluation of the Quality of Education and Training; together with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Spatial Planning there are Agencies for Environmental Protection, for Spatial Planning and for Recycling and Nature Preservation Bureau?

Source: Danas

Consequence of more or less resolute requirements from IMF negotiations, without completion of which it is difficult to even imagine remedy of our big budget deficit, is that the "rationalization of state government apparatus" has not only „come to the agenda", but has also become hyper-current topic. Of course, that's good news. Surely, one can rightfully ask questions, like - why has the rationalization been postponed so far, why have the impulses already present for years been ignored, why even modest attempts to do something have bounced off the firm armor of „lack of political will"? However, judging by the current status, it seems more appropriate, instead of searching for answers to those questions,  to „opportunistically" acknowledge „better safe than sorry" principle and finally get to real rationalization implementation.

Source: Danas

For 'Danas', Rodoljub Sabic, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance

The Interview

Belgrade - Rodoljub Sabic, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, welcomes the removal of the clause in the Proposal of the Law on Information Classification that limited the access of independent institutions to confidential information.

In his opinion expressed for 'Danas', he believes that this is 'something that is completely normal'.

- The suggested limitations, from the democratic standpoint, are absurd. They do not exist anywhere in the democratic world and are directly oposed to clauses of relevant international documents that Serbia ratified, such as the Council of Europe's Convention 108, as well as the Additional Protocol to this Convention - says Sabic. According to Sabic, 'completely ordinary is the fact that independent institions such as the Commissioner or the Ombudsman would have to undergo security checks as outlined in the Proposal.

Source: Blic

Slobodan Homen, the State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, said that the clauses limiting the jurisdiction of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, the Ombudsman, and the State Auditor Agency would be removed from the Law on Confidential Information proposal. Rodoljub Sabic, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, stated for ‘Blic' that it was good news that the Ministry of Justice has shown the readiness to accept criticisms related to the law proposal. He mentions that Serbia needs a good law on confidential information, but that the current proposal is both conceptually, legally, and technically subpar.

Source: Blic

The changes made to the Information Law contain clauses outlining very strict penalties for violations and infractions made by journalists and the media were the reason to remind ourselves of the issue of responsibility to objectively, truthfully, and fully communicate information to the general public. Namely, even though the aforementioned penalties are very strict, even stricter than the penalties outlined in the Criminal Code for similar offences, some showed understanding for this. They tried to justify their stance by indicating that certain negative phenomena in our media need to be confronted. One cannot deny the fact that publishing and reporting false information, twisting the truth and other forms of misinformation of the general public are obvious in some of the media. The other question is whether this justifies such strict penalties and other measures outlined in the present law.