Draft confidentiality laws "vanishing"

Draft laws on access to information and classification of secret information have vanished from parliamentary procedure. Trustee for Information of Public Importance Rodoljub Sabic has protested because the draft laws on free access to information of public importance and classification of confidential information have quite simply disappeared. Draft confidentiality laws "vanishing" Both laws were proposed to parliament six months ago in the form of a civic initiative supported by 70,000 citizens’ signatures. “It’s not that they’ve been withdrawn, they’ve simply disappeared. That was the reason for my reaction. So, even though they got quite a bit of publicity during their submission, today you simply cannot find them in procedure. I’ve reacted to this, because I think that as a civil servant I’m responsible for this, but also as a citizen. This attitude towards to extremely beneficial initiatives makes absolutely no sense to me,” said Sabic. The trustee believes that the failure of the government and Culture Ministry to carry out its obligations in implementing these laws is a serious boon for those in whose interests it is to break laws and who have something to hide from the public eye. “There’s absolutely no doubt whatsoever that we need a Law on Classification of Confidential Information as we are the last country in Europe not to have that law. That’s why on all sides, at all levels, anyone at all, on the basis of completely arbitrarily undefined criteria, can hamstring the media, giving confidential status to anything they see fit. If nothing else, it’s completely clear to me that we need this law for the reputation of our country,“ he underlined. Sabic stated that the Culture Ministry was responsible for launching criminal proceedings against those suspected of breaking the law, but that none of the basic prerequisites could exist for this until the government carried out its commitments to guarantee enforcement of the trustee’s decisions. Rodoljub Sabic (FoNet, archive)

Draft confidentiality laws "vanishing"

Both laws were proposed to parliament six months ago in the form of a civic initiative supported by 70,000 citizens’ signatures.

“It’s not that they’ve been withdrawn, they’ve simply disappeared. That was the reason for my reaction. So, even though they got quite a bit of publicity during their submission, today you simply cannot find them in procedure. I’ve reacted to this, because I think that as a civil servant I’m responsible for this, but also as a citizen. This attitude towards to extremely beneficial initiatives makes absolutely no sense to me,” said Šabić.

The trustee believes that the failure of the government and Culture Ministry to carry out its obligations in implementing these laws is a serious boon for those in whose interests it is to break laws and who have something to hide from the public eye.

“There’s absolutely no doubt whatsoever that we need a Law on Classification of Confidential Information as we are the last country in Europe not to have that law. That’s why on all sides, at all levels, anyone at all, on the basis of completely arbitrarily undefined criteria, can hamstring the media, giving confidential status to anything they see fit. If nothing else, it’s completely clear to me that we need this law for the reputation of our country,“ he underlined.

Šabić stated that the Culture Ministry was responsible for launching criminal proceedings against those suspected of breaking the law, but that none of the basic prerequisites could exist for this until the government carried out its commitments to guarantee enforcement of the trustee’s decisions.