26. 09. 2008

ŠABIĆ THREATENED TO RESIGN

Belgrade, September 26, 2008 (Danas) - The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, Rodoljub Šabić, announced his resignation in case the Serbian parliament renounced the last week’s Ombudsman’s ammendments to the Draft Law on Personal Data Protection and rather accepted the solutions suggested by the government. That legal suggestion is on today’s parliamentary agenda.

„I categorically claim with all my professional and expert dignity that the solution in Article 45, Paragraph 2 of the Draft Law, which completely relativizes the jurisdiction of the authorities in charge of personal data protection, does not exist in any comparative law“, stated Šabić, and his announcement was reported by the media. According to him, it is not important whether the personal data protection will be trusted to a comissioner or some other independent body, but that „he should have realistic authorization in order to do the job, because real and not seeming protection is needed“.

„Certain countries sometimes limit citizens’ rights to personal data protection by introducing laws or reservations in respect to international conventions, but not once has the body which guarantees such protection been limited in this way (...) By adopting the solutions proposed in the protection mechanism, not only would the pro-European and democratic government allow the conflict with international democratic standards and the plunge to the level below the one guaranteed ten years ago, but would also give the citizens and the public a message difficult to comprehend“, stressed Šabić.

Furthermore, he warned that the consequence of accepting such a solution would be multilateral realistic damage to human rights. „In that respect, the consequential resignation to the position of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, which I have announced not to blackmail anyone or be in the spotlight, but for personal and professional reasons, is the least important“, claimed Šabić. Last week, the Citizens’ Protector, Saša Janković, sent 15 ammendments to the Draft Law into the parliamentary procedure, among which two which refer to the Commissioner’s jourisdiction. The Ombudsman stated that the crucial ammendment was the one which made it impossible for personal data processing bodies to prevent the control of their work as they saw fit, declaring national and public security as sufficient reasons for such behavior.

International Right to Information Day

On the occasion of celebrating the International “Right-to-Know” Day, awards will be given today to state institutions which contributed to executing positive practices when implementing the Freedom of Access to the Important Public Information Act. On that occasion, the materials on the right to the free access to information would be distributed today in Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad and Novi Pazar, the OSCE Mission announced.