In May 2013, several governmental institutions initiated change of the Freedom of Information Act in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, numerous CSO’s joined forces and managed to prevent these changes that would have severely derogated freedom of information in B&H.

An attempt by the government to amend the law which regulates access to information of public character in Bosnia and Herzegovina by reducing the existing rights of citizens and media prompted a swift and massive response by the civil society and ultimately ended with the amendments’ withdrawal.
 
The draft amendments to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) were published by the Ministry of Justice in May 2013. They were initiated by the Agency for Protection of Personal Data and aimed at introducing changes to the law that would severely limit access to information for citizens and especially for media in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The draft included several modifications of the existing law. The first one was related to protection of private data, limiting access to information in all cases in which the request endangers ‘the right to privacy and other legitimate private interests’. Although some exceptions to this rule were also defined, it basically meant that any kind of information – name, address, information related to property issues, etc. would be considered ‘private’ and therefore could be unavailable to the public.

Continue reading "Civil society prevented deterioration of rights provided in Freedom of Information Act" (Slobodanka Dekić)