Today, a repeat edition of the Guide to Law on Access to Information of Public Importance has been published.
The Commissioner for Information has published 20,000 copies of the Guide in cooperation with the „Official Gazette“, while a majority of the issue will be distributed directly to subscribers to the „Official Gazette“.
The Commissioner for the information of public importance assesses that certain reactions of some government bodies to the solutions of the Commissioner point at insufficient knowledge of the contents of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, both in terms of the contents of the rights, and in terms of the procedure for their enforcing.
Commissioner for the information of public importance considers that frequent responses of media, journalistic and professional organizations, trade unions, and other entities of the civil society, with regard to certain events concerning freedom of expression, deserve the highest attention. According to Commissioner's opinion, these reactions, as well as some requests for protection addressed to Commissioner, indicate the need of critical reassessment of things done so far concerning incorporation of internationally recognized standards into our legislation, and in particular, the practice.
Commissioner for the information of public importance reiterated initiative of the Government of Serbia to establish mechanism for carrying out Commissioner's decisions.
Initiative for amending Rules of Procedure of the Government or possible adoption of the special regulation was addressed to the Government by the Commissioner several months ago, in March this year. As there were no outcomes and evaluating the present situation as detrimental for the implementation of Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, the Commissioner again requested the Government of Serbia to adopt respective regulation.
