The Commissioner for Information and Personal Data Protection was given necessary office space on this day, 1 July, four years ago and he started his work on protection of citizens' right to free access to information.
On this occasion, the Commissioner, Rodoljub Sabic has made the following statement:
The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Rodoljub Sabic estimates as justified and joins in the criticism of many NGO's, dealing in transparency of public authorities' work, expressed in their letters to the President of European Commission and to European Commissioner for Trade. The criticism was addressed at the internal act, instructions for staff, which the EC Directorate General for Trade calls ‘'Vademecum''.
Saying that he expects the so called ‘'Vademecum'' to be revoked or at least amended, as the Commissioners from some member states of the EU have said as well, the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic has stated the following:
The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic has forwarded a formal initiative to the Ombudsman of the Republic of Serbia today suggesting that the Ombudsman, in accordance with constitutional authority to propose to the Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information Bill an amendment in the function of protection of insiders.
The Commissioner estimates that, from the aspect of human rights and also from the aspect of fight against corruption, it is very important that the people who have opposed formal and informal rules on protection of secrets in order to protect public interest have a guarantee that they can not bear any negative consequences because of that.
The Commissioner deems that the absence of provisions on protection of insiders is a serious drawback of the Bill which the Government has recently forwarded to the National Assembly and he is certain that the Ombudsman will accept this initiative and submit an appropriate amendment.
In view of this, the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic has said the following:
The Commissioner for information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic considers that stealing of a computer with personal data on several dozens of persons from premises of the Commissioner for Refugees in Novi Sad is not and must not be treated as a "regular' criminal offence.
The fact that unauthorized persons obtained personal data on several thousand citizens opens numerous possibilities for abuse and is a serious, real threat to rights and interests of persons the data relate to. This and some other similar cases should be taken as a serious warning that the attitude towards protection of citizens' privacy is far from adequate because unauthorized persons can easily come into possession of citizens' personal data and because of the lack of or completely inadequate reactions of responsible persons.
In connection with this, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said the following:
