Celebrating the International Public Right to Know Day on 28th September, the Croatian Helsinki Committee presented results of the comparative survey of the implementation of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia. According to the results presented in the Press Club on Wednesday 28th September, Croatia stands behind Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in implementation of the FOIA. (28-SEP-05)
In order to provide further information and monitoring on the implementation of the FOIA, the CHC and its regional partners YUCOM from Serbia and CSPI (Center for Free Access of Information) from B&H, carried out a joint regional project, consisting of submitting requests for various information to the authorities.
Almost the same response from the authorities to the submitted requests was obtained in Serbia (58%) and Bosnia & Herzegovina (56%), while the CHC received only 104 responses out of altogether 274 requests submitted to the authorities in Croatia (38 %). -We in Croatia sent 274 requests for information, and got complete answers on time in 38 percent of cases. Not a single answer out of 7 requests for information did arrive from the Office of Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic or from Zagreb City Department for Preservation of Historic Heritage. Thus Zagreb City Office showed to be the most closed public body for access to information, claimed the CHC head of the research Milena Gogiæ.
Several high state officials, such as the President of the Republic Stjepan Mesiæ and Vice Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor were present during the presentation of the results of the survey. President Mesiæ reminded that the right to a free access to information is one of the basic human rights and claimed that the culture of freedom of information in Croatia was poor developed.
-In Croatia, freedom of information was neglected for years. However, as the time passes by, it will become more and more important, said Mesiæ.
The survey is a part of an ongoing campaign „Public has a right to know“, which was first initiated in 2000 by the CHC and Transparency International Croatia, as well as two other members of the Zagreb Human Rights House, B.a.B.e. and Croatian Law Centre. Forming a wider coalition of NGO´s , the campaign successfully lobbied for the adoption of the Law on the Right to Access Information in the year 2003, partially consisting of the recommendations and amendments laid down in the Declaration “Public Right to Know” signed by the NGO´s.
All information on the campaign and the results of the survey are available at www.gradjani-imaju-pravo-znati.hho.hr, a special web-site on public right to know launched during the celebration of the 28th of September.
