Press Releases - Archive

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has passed a decision ordering the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade to make publicly available information about whether the Deputy Higher Public Prosecutor in charge of the “Savamala” case had notified the Higher Public Prosecutor in Belgrade, the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Government or a competent body of the National Assembly that the police had failed to act on his requests and urgings and whether disciplinary reports had been filed against the persons who refused to respond to the requests and urgings of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The Commissioner also ordered the respondent to provide the requester with the reference numbers of the documents containing the requested information, if they exist.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection welcomes the response of the Ministry of Interior to the Letter of Warning sent to it by the Commissioner in connection with unauthorised processing of citizens’ personal data in the records titled “Daily Bulletin of Events” as the correct and beneficial course of action.

The Commissioner’s Letter of Warning to the Ministry of Interior was sent after it was found in an inspection of compliance with the Law on Personal Data Protection that data contained in the file titled “Daily Events”, which contained information on police responses to criminal offences and misdemeanours, as well as information on harm to lives and property caused by natural disasters and all other events within the mandate of the police, with personal data of the persons involved in such events, were used in the compiling of the “Daily Bulletin of Events”, which was disseminated to a wide range of external recipients.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection welcomes the fact that the Supreme Court of Cassation (in a session of the Civil Law Department) took a legal position according to which any denial of an appropriate reply to an information requester constitutes a violation of a personal tight, which entitles the information requester in all cases, as the damaged party, to file a petition for infringement proceedings on his/her own.

In connection with the announced opening of the National Hotline for Child Internet Safety, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection sent a letter to the Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications.

The Commissioner has no intention of questioning the appropriateness of the measures undertaken by the government to ensure maximum online safety for children; indeed, he praises the importance of such measures. However, with this in mind, he believes it is paramount to approach these matters with utmost seriousness and responsibility, which implies compliance with the Constitution and the laws and creating as few risks for legal certainty and as little additional confusion as possible in an already inconsistent existing legal framework for personal data protection.