Press Releases - Archive

Through his associates, and with the participation of the representatives of the Administrative Court, and the judges, The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection held a conference devoted to the training of persons authorized to act upon requests for access to information of public importance in the Authorities of the Republic entitled "Open Issues in Connection with the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance".

The training was organized at the request of the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and was attended by tens of authorized persons from multiple authorities (the Ministry of State Administration and Local Government, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Ministry of Mining and Energy, Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, as well as the authorized persons of the Republic Directorate for Property, of the Republic Hydrometeorological service, the Republican Directorate for Commodity Reserves, the Republic Institute for Statistics, the Republic Geodetic Authority, the State Secretariat for Public Policy, the Intellectual Property Office, the Directorate for Electronic Administration, the Institute for Social Insurance, the Administration Inspectorate and the Mine Action Center).

The Commissioner says that yesterday's conference was very useful. At the same time, however, he believes that a large and constantly growing number of complaints he received indicate the need for continuous training of authorized persons. The continuous training in order to have the best performance of obligations and exercise of rights of citizens is a professional duty of these persons or bodies in which they work. The Commissioner would provide maximum assistance within real possibilities, just as he has done so far.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection ordered the PUC "Infostan" from Belgrade to deliver the requested information related to the "voluntary insurance", which was recently reported in the bills of Infostan to the party that requested the information, namely the NGO YUCOM from Belgrade.

The request for information related to the contract concluded between the PUC "Infostan" and Joint Stock Insurance Company Generali Insurance Serbia I.E the act which contracted such insurance, such protocol on the method of work and implementation of insurance services and the approval of the Alliance of Independent consumer organizations was given to those services.

The Commissioner says that Infostan's claim that the contract concluded between the PUC "Infostan" and Generali Insurance JSC Ltd Serbia envisages the obligation of professional secrecy, and that the PUC "Infostan" cannot be released from the obligation without the written consent of the other contractual sides is legally unacceptable.

No contractual provisions can condition or suspend the application of the law, and in this case Infostan did not prove nor could have proven that the legal conditions for limiting the rights of the public were met.

The public has an interest and a right to know whether a public company operates in accordance with the law. In the present case this interest was further reinforced because it was a "legal transaction" that served as a "basis" for the unlawful processing of personal data of an extremely large number of citizens, Infostan service users, which had already been the reason for the reaction of the Commissioner who also filed the requests for initiating misdemeanor proceedings against responsible persons, Infostan and Generali Serbia's General Managers.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection hosted Mojca Prelesnik, the Information Commissioner of the Republic of Slovenia, her deputy Kristina Kotnik Šumah, Andrej Tomšič, Alenka Jerše and Secretary General Sanja Vraber.

During the two-day visit, the commissioners discussed the improvement of the long-established, excellent existing cooperation. It was agreed to maintain and further intensify the exchange of experiences in the areas of freedom of information and protection of personal data, as well as to hold regular annual meetings to the purpose.

They discussed, in accordance with the potential interests of businesses from Serbia, the legal and factual conditions for the removal of personal data from Slovenia to Serbia, and it was agreed that the Slovenian Commissioner would in due course give a formal evaluation of these conditions.

A special subject of discussion was the content of the Model Law on the Protection of Personal Data, which the Serbian Commissioner and his associates prepared and made available to the Government of Serbia. During this conversation, the Slovenian Commissioner and her staff rated its quality very highly. Such an assessment, taking into account the experience of Slovenia in the implementation of modern, democratic standards of personal data protection, was received by the Serbian Commissioner and his staff with pleasure.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection initiated the procedure of supervision over the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection by the Ministry of Interior ex officio.

The Police Union of Serbia addressed the Commissioner, pointing out that the Ministry of Interior was in the course of collecting and processing data on employees in order to make dismissal lists and sought an opinion on the legality of such processing of personal data by the Ministry of Interior.

The Commissioner, of course, fully supports all efforts on the necessary reform of The Ministry of Interior and on improving its capacities. At the same time, however, the Commissioner is of the opinion that the data processing to be carried out for this purpose must be entirely in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the law.