Source: Danas

The number of complaints against the republic is at least twice higher than against local authorities, when it comes to the field of ​​free access to public information. There are many more problems at the state than at the local level. However, the fact is that even the amount of interesting information available to the republic authorities is much higher, thus the number of requests for access to them is higher – Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, has pointed out for the daily Danas. Sabic has recently been re-elected to another seven-year term of the Commissioner.

How do you assess the situation in the field of the right of free access to information of public importance in the last seven years in Serbia? How much progress has been made?

- I estimate it as much better than seven years ago, but at the same time as not good enough. Progress is evident, as judged by observers from the EU, CoE or OSCE, and according to the monitoring results of independent experts, we have probably made the most progress in the regional framework. However, the achieved level of transparency is still not in accordance with the needs for further democratization of society, especially the need to fight corruption.

Извор: "Блиц"

Грађани се масовно жале

Марија Малеш

Како се предизборна кампања захуктава, поверенику за информације од јавног значаја Родољубу Шабићу стиже све више жалби грађана на активисте политичких странака који их у кампањи од врата до врата посећују у становима и доводе у непријатну ситуацију, посебно их узнемирујући чињеницом да располажу њиховим комплетним личним подацима.

Source: "Politika"

“The public should know how the document, on the scope of which depend lives of thousands of people, is prepared“, said Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance.

The barest minimum of requirements is that the public knows the objectives and the criteria of budget revision. Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic used these words to comment for the “Politika” daily the manner in which national budget was revised. As he said, that process must be much more transparent.

“Thus, if the objective is to reduce the budget deficit, which is completely legitimate, we should know in advance how achievement of that objective is planned. Whether by linear reduction or by some other criteria. And we should know who, why and how much should reduce spending. And that is completely unknown to us and the impression is that the revision is based on the “idea” that  those who have already been saving should save even more, and those who have not been saving do not have to save“, Mr. Sabic is being critical.

Source: "Blic"

The greatest aspect of the problem with regards to the implementation of anti-corruption legislation, such as the Law on the Free Access to Information of Public Importance, the Law on Public Procurement, and the Law on the Anti-Corruption Agency, is a consequence of the fact that the penal provisions of these laws are implemented partly or not at all, even in cases of obvious violations of the aforementioned.

The current “Draft Rulebook on technical requirements for equipment and software for legal interception of electronic communications and keeping data on electronic communications” generated a re-run of the “uproar” which the Draft Bill on Electronic Communications caused in the summer of 2010.

Source: "Danas"

There is no state protection system for corruption whistle-blowers in Serbia.

Belgrade - Whistle-blowers, people who report cases of corruption, do not enjoy protection in Serbia, and are often penalized, dismissed from their jobs and bullied for reporting cases of grave misconduct at their places of work.

Since it  was launched a year ago, more than 800 complaints from all regions in the country have been submitted to the www.pistaljka.rs web portal which allows citizens to report corruption while protecting their identity.

The option for security agencies, acting on an opinion which is not subject to court appraisal, to access information, is a grave breach of the Constitution.

 Interception and keeping information on electronic communications – telephone call listings, to put it simply – can be done by security agencies without any court decision, if the new “Draft Rulebook on technical requirements for equipment and software for legal interception of electronic communications and keeping data on electronic communications” is adopted. Some provisions of this bylaw allow for violations of basic human rights, introduce uncertainties and enable arbitrary interpretations, warns Rodoljub Sabic, Commisisoner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, who forwarded yesterday his opinion on the Rulebook to the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society, competent for this area.

Source: "Blic"

At a meeting addressing restitution issues held at the National Assembly recently, in response to complaints put forth by the participants pointing to a lack of transparency in connection with restitution, Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Djelic proclaimed: “You will no longer need Information Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic, we will now post all information on the Internet”.

Source: "Blic"

Some days ago I had a meeting with Mr. Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights. As Mr. Hammarberg is a person of exceptional interest, an internationally renowned human rights advocate and a well-meaning and highly cultured conversationalist, this meeting, like so many others before it, has been a pleasant one.

Source: "Blic"

In Serbia, no one was ever punished for illegal personal data processing. This is a rarity, even within the international framework, and it was no coincidence that it prompted one ironic academic joke (Prof. Vlada Vodinelic) – “When it comes to personal data protection, “the statistics” shows that Serbia is, undisputedly, the best. Because, if there were reasons for it, someone had to have been punished.”