25. 09. 2008

OFFICIALLY, EVERYONE IS SUSPICIOUS

Beograd, September 25, 2008, (Glas javnosti) – The members of the Serbian Parliament will soon, maybe even next week, discuss the Draft Law on Personal Data Protection. The form of the accepted text depends on the will of the proposer (i.e. the Serbian government) and the delegates to accept numerous ammendments to the Draft Law. The most prominent are those of Saša Janković, the Citizens’ Protector of the Republic of Serbia (the Ombudsman), and Rodoljub Šabić, the The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, in charge of its implementation. That law is one of those Serbia must pass in order to find its place on the White Schengen List.

The right to a copy

The Draft Law had been composed by the previous government, and the new administration returned it to parliamentary procedure intact. The Draft Law contains special regulations for processing particularly sensitive data, which comprise the data on nationality, race, sex, religion, political or other belief, union membership, health, receiving social welfare, being a victim of violence, being tried for a criminal offence and sexual orientation. Any person whose data are being processed can require to be informed about the source of the information about him- or herself and the aim of the data collection. He or she can request an audio, video or digital copy of the data, as well as their deletion if the aim of the processing is unclear or if it is conducted in an illegal way. Nevertheless, those rights can be breached if it is estimated that they would seriously jeopardize national or public safety or the business or state interests.

The collected data are given to the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, who registers them into the Central Register, which he supervises, and they can be exported from Serbia to another member state of the Convention for the Protection of Individuals. If the Draft Law is accepted by the members of parliament, it will go into force as of January 1 next year.

The Commissioner for Information, Rodoljub Šabić, gave a statement immediately, stressing that the proposed solution „contained certain articles which could be a basis for a complete revitalization, or even full disregard of the personal data protection”.

- That primarily refers to Paragraph 2, Article 45, which, among else, allows security bodies to, for “elusive” reasons, prevent the body in charge of personal data protection to have insight into the data, data collections, documentation, and even the premises where they are kept – said Šabić. He added that „protection was proclaimed, and then someone was given an option to remove the protection on the basis of possibly unknowledgeable personal assessment“.

In order to prevent such or similar possible „malversations“, the Ombudsman of the Republic of Serbia, Saša Janković, gave the parliamentary assembly 15 ammendments to the suggested Draft Law.

The right to insight

- It is not a matter of avoiding the interests of national security, on the contrary. However, in such situations there must be efficient and full protection of citizens’ rights – said Janković and added he hoped that the government would reach the conclusion that the ammendments were valuable and would accept them.

Snežana Malović, the Minister of Justice in the Serbian government, agrees with Ombudsman Janković that it is necessary to improve certain solutions from the suggested Draft Law, and her Ministry is preparing a number of measures which will create the conditions for respecting citizens’ rights, guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.

On the other hand, Public Prosecution Office spokesman Tomo Zoric, believes that it is necessary and purposeful for a law to limit the access to information in cases of national and public security, as well as during investigations for criminal offences.

- It is crucial, essential and purposeful for the Draft Law, which is in the parliamentary procedure, to retain Article 45, which refers to the right to access and have insight into the data of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance.  That limitation is a must because it protects the public and national security, the state defense and pre-trial criminal proceedings regarding the investigation and charges for criminal offences – Zorić says.

The Ombudsman received support by the Independent Association of the Journalists of Serbia, Transparency Serbia and other non-governmental organizations.