Press Releases - Archive

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic views the readiness of the Ministry of Justice to accept criticisms by the experts of the proposal of the Law on Confidential Information as a responsible and constructive approach, as well as praises their willingness to withdraw the proposal if the proposal's inadequacies are so vast that they cannot not be overcome by amendments.

The Commissioner stated the following regarding this:

Estimating the Draft Law on Confideltiality of Information, drawn by the Serbian Government and forwarded to the National Assembly for adoption, as unsatisfactory from the conceptual, legal and technical aspect,  the Commisioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection addressed a letter of the following content to the Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic:

Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Rodoljub Sabic has sent today to the Editor in Chief of daily newspaper  „Borba" a letter with the following content: 

„In yesterday's issue of newspaper „Borba" with the beginning at the front page, a text has been published, which contains in essence specific interpretation of an interview I had on the topic of  „secretive" lobbying contracts with the lady journalists from Your newspaper. 

However, you gave to the quoted text, in the way implying that those are my words, a title without foundation in the contents of the interview: „ Secrecy of contracts,  nonsense and stupidity of the Government of Serbia".

During the interview, starting from my generally known attitude that all handling of public resources, and especially money must be maximally transparent, I have stressed that this surely also pertains to the lobbying contracts in question. In relation to them, having in mind the high level of transparency which has been secured in the USA in the lobbying operations, I said that there is no sense that the contents of those contracts should be available to the American public, and that in our country those same contracts should be  „strictly confidential".

I didn't use the word „nonsense", and especially the word „stupidity". Anyone who knows me at least a little bit knows that in public appearances I never use insulting words. I don't think however that they are in line with the modern standards of freedom of expression absolutely prohibited, but I think that in our public debate there are too many of them. Therefore I do not want and I never give my personal contribution to that, and so I expect that this letter shall be published as a corrigendum."

In connection with the Budget System Bill, which was confirmed and sent for expedited enactment, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection said it was not good that there was no public debate about it. An opportunity for the public, in the first place professional public, to give its contribution to the articulation of quality arrangements was missed. Emphasizing it was necessary to improve this Bill by amendments in order to ensure rights of the public enshrined in the Constitution and the law, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said the following: