On the occasion of the International Right to Know Day and presentation of awards for contribution to freedom of information of public importance the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection launched a call for good examples of authorities in advocating this right and transparent work.
The call which the Commissioner addressed to numerous civil society organizations stated the following:
The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, regarding articles published in several media, in connection with the rape and murder of minor A.S. and the murder of D.S. from Vratarnica, conducted a supervision procedure over the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection against the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Zajecar.
The supervision procedure was conducted at the Head office of the MIA in Belgrade, Police Department in Zajecar and Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Zajecar, and involved taking statements from the police and prosecuting acting officers and examination of the complete official documentation.
The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection met today in Belgrade with the United States Ambassador to Serbia, Kyle Scott.
The Commissioner and the Ambassador discussed a range of current topics, in particular those regarding the functioning of the institution of the Commissioner, the state of affairs and problems in the work of independent institutions and the judiciary, issues related to exercise of the right to personal data protection in data transfers from Serbia to other countries, freedom of access to information on business transactions by government authorities and state-owned companies and the fight against corruption.
The Ambassador confirmed the readiness of the US Embassy to assist and support both the institution of the Commissioner and all the efforts of the Republic of Serbia aimed at improving transparency of governance, lawfulness and the rule of law.
The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection considers yesterday's public statement by Perutnina Ptuj-Topiko d.o.o (ltd.) Backa Topola on the occasion of the warning sent by the Commissioner completely inappropriate. The company received a warning for unlawful processing of personal data by polygraph testing of a large number of employees.
The Commissioner underlines that it is completely irrelevant whether the motive for the polygraph testing was "to detect offenders" (as specified by the representatives of Perutnina in the process of inspection and as stated in the Inspection Report), "consumer protection" (as written in the company's public statement) or something else.
