Source: "Blic"
The title of this article could be perceived and interpreted as the Commissioner for Information interfering with the day-to-day politics, as a support to the very current efforts and promotion of decentralization. But, this is not the case. It is something completely different.
The title is associated to one also current case in which the State Public Prosecutor filed a complaint before the Constitutional Court against a decision of the Commissioner, in which the Commissioner requested from the Higher Court in Belgrade to deliver an audio-visual copy of a hearing to the defendant. Previously, the Higher Court gave the transcript of the audio-visual recording at its own initiative, but then refused to give the copy of the actual recording due to the certain doubts regarding the validity of the recording! The Commissioner, believing that providing the defendant with the copy was the best way to remove any doubts of the validity of the recording, passed a decision requesting from the Higher Court to do so after personal data on the recording has been protected. The State Public Prosecutor asked for the annulment of this decision!
I am not going to address the reasons stated in the complaint by the State Public Prosecutor at this time. Except one. The one where the State Public Prosecutor and the Higher Court claim that “there are no technical possibilities” to fulfill the Commissioner’s decision. I was very surprised to hear this, because, at the same time, the Municipality Council of the Municipality of Vladicin Han, acting on the orders of the Commissioner, delivered a copy of an audio-visual recording to the Prosecutor, after the copy passed the process of “depersonalization” in order to protect personal data.
In modern conditions, it is not complicated at all to protect personal data on audio and video recordings. These are very simple operations in audio and video processing, while the software to do this can be found easily, and some of it is even free of charge to use.
Due to “technological superiority” of the authorities in Vladicin Han, compared to the authorities in the capital, we are arguing for a dislocation of the capital city to Vladicin Han as a joke. But, joke aside, this should be a warning sign of something else to us, something very important. Of the obligation of all state authorities to, in order to better and faster fulfill the rights of citizens, harmonize their practice with modern technical and technological advancements, at least to the bare minimum.
