Right to free access to information of public importance

Although the Law on Free Access to Information is still a very solid instrument for exercising the public’s right to know, i.e. its control over the work of the government, it was clear practically from the very beginning that there was a need to change, supplement and improve it. In the course of 15 years of its implementation, this became increasingly obvious. Unfortunately, the unwillingness of the authorities to respond to this need in an adequate way is equally obvious, and extremely worrying.

In the article, the author wants to draw attention to the numerous problems that have been identified in the fifteen years of the implementation of the Law. Some of them, which are the most striking and whose importance is the greatest are:

• the very large number of requests for access to information and complaints about them,
• the absence of responsibility for violating the law,
• the problem of enforcement of the Commissioner’s decision,
• inconsistency and violation of the unity of the legal order, and
• the attitude of those in power, especially the National Assembly, towards the institution of the Commissioner.

This article is part of a joint effort by the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), the National Coalition for Decentralisation (NKD), the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) and Partners for Democratic Change to encourage greater citizen participation in decision-making through the “Citizens Have Power” project, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of USAID.