Fines for Denying Access to Information

Journalists, who use this law in order to obtain data for their articles, point out that the fact that inspectors will react in case institutions fail to respond to their requests is positive. However, they doubt that all complaints will be solved in due time. The new revisions foresee that the Administrative Inspectorate of the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina is responsible for implementing the Law on Free Access to Information. From now on citizens, to whom institutions deny access to information, can address inspectors, who are obliged to conduct an inspectional supervision after that.“In case an administrative inspector determines that provisions of the Law on Free Access to Information have been violated, he will order the institution manager to correct the violations within a certain timeframe. In case he/she fails to act on such a decision, there is a possibility for initiating an offence proceeding,” Emir Mehmedovic, Chief Administrative Inspector, explains. Although the Administrative Inspectorate had certain duties related to the implementation of this Law in the past, Mehmedovic said that the inspectional supervision process has been clearly defined only now.According to the new revisions, inspectors will be able to issue certain fines to public bodies, which violate the Law. “Inspectors can now issue the lowest fine, i.e. 1,000 KM. In case an offence proceeding is initiated and the case comes to court, the body may have to pay a higher fine, as foreseen under the Law,” Mehmedovic says.
The Law stipulates that public bodies may be fined to up to 15,000 KM. Lazar Prodanovic, one of the proposers of the Law revisions, says that, according to the new revisions, the responsibility of persons from institutions, which deny access to information, will be determined as well.“Financial sanctions against persons responsible for refusing free access to information to citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been increased. The responsibility of persons, who are obliged to provide information in accordance with the law, was not determined in the past. Fine amounts were much lower in the past than they are now,” Prodanovic said.New revisions foresee that a person responsible for denying access to information may be fined to between 1-10,000 KM. Mirjana Popovic, journalist with the Centre for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo, says that the fact that inspectors will react in case public institutions fail to respond to requests by citizens or journalist is positive. However, she points out that the fact that institutions often submit incomplete information remains one of the biggest issues. “We have filed appeals against tens of requests so far. They were sometimes sent to the same institution and often to the same persons, who rejected our requests or sent partial answers,” Popovic says. The Administrative Inspectorate says that they are not competent for checking the content of responses provided by public institutions, adding that this issue will be dealt with by a special appellate chamber with the Council of Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Our task is to make sure that bodies will act in accordance with the Law and that they act within the set timeframes, but we shall not review the content of their responses. In fact, the key issue is to ensure that citizens receive a response,” Mehmedovic said.Popovic points out that she is not sure whether the Appellate Chamber will be able to solve all the appeals in due time. Revisions to the Law on Free Access to Information were also proposed in the middle of last year. One of the proposals was to enable public institutions to restrict access to information in case publishing of the information would endanger someone’s right to privacy. Journalists, as well as numerous NGOs, objected to the proposal, saying that, instead of restricting access to information, the existing laws should be conciliated and improved. As a result, the proposed Law was withdrawn. Journalist