Press Releases - Archive

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, ex officio, pursuant to Article 54 (2) in relation to paragraph 1 of the Law on Personal Data Protection ("Official Gazette of the RS", No.-97/08 and 104/09- other law and 68/12 – decision of the CC and 107/12, hereinafter referred to as - LPDP), has initiated the inspection procedure over the implementation and enforcement of the law by the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia (hereinafter referred to as: RS MI), following the news published on 10.08.2013 onwards, by several electronic media on their websites, which says that from the source from the RS MI was obtained information that, during the police action in the vicinity of Bor, operatives of the Criminal Police recorded a sexual act of two high local politicians from SNS (Serbian Progressive Party) and SPS (Socialist Parts of Serbia), whose names are allegedly known to the media editorial offices.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection made a repeated inspection of compliance with the legal duty to publish information booklets by higher education institutions.

The Commissioner said the warnings and rulings with relevant orders he had sent to about 200 higher education institutions several months ago resulted in the improvement of their attitude towards compliance with the legal duty, but much remained to be done before compliance with this duty could be seen as satisfactory.

In that regard, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said the following:

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection urged today deputies in the National Assembly to adopt the amendment to the Draft Misdemeanours Law which proposes extensions of statute of limitations for infringements set out by the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance.

The Commissioner reminded that those were infringements which were by their nature committed by public officials, the very people who had a duty to enforce the law. The fact that these people are violating the law en masse should be sufficient reason to strengthen all liability instruments.

Emphasising that the situation regarding liability for violation of the right to know was very far from satisfactory, and in particular that short statutes of limitation afforded the perpetrators of offences a high degree of certainty that they would not be held liable, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said the following:

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has estimated in a letter addressed to the Ministry of Finance and Economy that certain provisions of the recently adopted Rulebook on the Manner of Keeping and Content of the Register of Public Contracts contravene the Constitution and the law.

The Commissioner has urged the Ministry to harmonize the contentious provisions with the law, since their implementation would jeopardize the public rights, which are based on the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, and have other negative effects, as well.

In this regard the Commissioner, Rodoljub Sabic, has stated the following: