13. 12. 2004

ACCESS TO INFORMATION NO EASIER DESPITE LEGISLATION

BELGRADE, December 13, 2004 – A survey conducted by B92 shows that the Free Access to Information Act has still not taken practical effect. The Act was proclaimed a month ago, since which time the state should have appointed officials to respond to the requests of the public for information. B92 journalists, in their role as citizens, attempted to determine the number of judges employed in the Fourth Municipal Court in Belgrade, the number of active legal proceedings at present before the court and the number of verdicts handed down this year. We were told at the reception desk that the court had an officer authorised to provide information on the request of citizens and that our request could be submitted to the president of the court. We were told, however, that as private individuals we were not entitled to the information. We then went to the City Assembly in search of information on the budget approved in 2004 for the City of Belgrade and to discover the cost of representation during the year. The first response to our request for information was to be asked who we thought we were to demand such information. The city officials to whom we spoke were unable to tell us who was authorised to handle requests for information and directed us to the Financial Secretariat. The nominated candidate for the position of Public Information Commissioner under the new legislation, Rodoljub Sabic, who is to be in charge of implementing the act and processing complaints by citizens to whom information is refused, said that the responses we had met were predictable. “You would probably get the same wrong and ugly response in 99 per cent of places at present. We can only hope that the new commissioner, whoever that may be, either me or someone else, will succeed in establishing an atmosphere in which, when you apply at a certain address of an appropriate body – not an individual, the individual is only providing the service – you will get what you have come for,” said Sabic. The Act provides for the appropriate state authorities to organise training of employees and an introduction to their obligations in relation to the rights guaranteed by the law. Sabic notes that the education of the public is also necessary for full conformity with the law. “The commissioner also has a certain authority. He has the right to control service and conduct communication with the appropriate ministries. When I say control, I would regard the Public Information Act with some reserve, because it would be unwise for the commissioner to establish the entire mechanism and conduct a thorough inspection. There is an inspectorate with the State and Local Government Administration Ministry which, according to my profound belief, should do the checking instead of you, despite the fact that, under the law, the regulatory body for implementation is the Ministry for Culture and Information,” said Sabic. The Serbian Parliament is to elect the new commissioner within the legal deadline of the next two weeks. However there is a stumbling block in that the 2005 Budget has not earmarked funding for the implementation of the Access to Information Act.