Source Blic

It is customary that  on the occasion of 3^rd May, International Media Liberty Day, relevant subjects dealing in the status and protection of media freedom shall give adequate evaluations about the level of that freedom in some or all countries of the world. So we could recently hear that the Freedom House evaluated Serbia as a free media country, in which open political competition is represented, with respect to media independence. Additional specific weight of this really good evaluation is achieved by receiving it for the first time. So far the best result was only “partially free media“.

Some would be, out of understandable reasons thrilled by this evaluation.  And the others shall find it subjective, due to not any less understandable reasons. But, instead of disputing, it is better to remember some issues on the Media Freedom Day, which are really important for media functioning in the way adequate to democratic society.

Source-Blic

The forthcoming general population census and national councils’ elections are major tasks whose successful completion is important for confirmation of administrative capacities and democratic legitimacy of the country.  Therefore, precisely, are they important from the aspect of certain human rights. Namely, these activities entail massive personal data processing, including processing certain data which are defined as highly sensitive data, e.g. national or religious identity, under the Law on Personal Data Protection. Under the Law, the data may be processed exclusively with freely given permission of the owner of the data. The Law explicitly stipulates that the permission has to be explicit, unambiguous and given in writing, and in case of illiterate persons the permission has to be confirmed in a declaration signed by two witnesses.

Source-Blic

The form filled by parents at first-grader enrolment in primary schools contains questions on the child’s national identity, the number of people who live in its household and in its room, means of transportation to school, marital status, education, type of employment and job of its mother and father. 

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, Rodoljub Sabic has said to Beta Agency that he has already warned the Ministry of Education about irregularities regarding collection of such data.

Source: “Pravda”

“During the past five years, the Commissioner’s Office had more than 7,000 cases and received about 5,500 complaints”, said Ms. Stanojla Mandic, Deputy Commissioner, in Bujanovac and Presevo.

“Last year we had about 2,000 cases. We expected that the number of cases would constantly decrease and that the competent authorities would have embraced the respect for human rights and standards as a matter of course. However, the number of complaints is constantly increasing”, Ms. Mandic emphasized.

Source: “Politika”

By means of amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information in an expedited procedure, the Government vested Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic with the power to determine the amounts of fines charged to those who withhold information.

Source: “Blic”

The Serbian public will soon learn every piece of information the Serbian Government has denied to it so far by classifying it as secret – from information on 10 largest debtors to the state, through information on five largest investments in Serbia to information on selling of the Nis tobacco factory, as well as all details on criminal proceedings in connection with the death of journalist Dada Vujasinovic.