I N F O R M A T I O N
ONE YEAR OF APPLICATION OF THE LAW ON FREE ACCESS TO PUBLIC INFORMATION
The Commission for Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information (CPRFAPI) during the first year of application of the Law on Free Access to Public Information (September 1, 2006 – August 10, 2007) received 204 cases.
The first case received in written and archived by the Commission was on September 18, 2006. Until the end of 2006, the Commission received 35 cases, out of which 31 were complaints. If we compare this number to the number of cases submitted to the Commission in 2007, we come to a conclusion that the number of the citizens whose access to information was denied is drastically increased.
The figures tell us that, viewed in quarters, the number of cases submitted in written has increased for about 5 times, or in other words, the Commission received averagely (for 11 months) 18.5 cases-complaints.
Cases submitted to the Commission in 2006
• 1 in September, 11 in October, 12 in November and 11 in December
Cases submitted to the Commission in 2007
• 19 in January, 6 in February, 7 in March, 17 in April, 34 in May, 51 In June, 32 in July, and 3 until August 10
Cases submitted to the Commission (September 01, 2006-August 10, 2007)
Starting with September 1, 2006 until August 10, 2007, the Commission received 204 cases, out of which 187 are complaints, and the rest 17 cases are concerning the general correspondence.
The Commission, after inspecting the complaints with the total attached documentation, has brought 112 decisions that state that:
• 40 complaints were accepted and the information holders were compelled to issue the requested information
• 20 complaints were accepted and the cases were returned to the information holder for a second procedure
• 42 complaints were rejected on different grounds
• 6 complaints were rejected as ungrounded
• 4 complaints were accepted in one part and rejected in other
Out of the other submitted complaints:
• For 36 cases the procedure was stopped with a conclusion, because of withdrawal of the complaint
• For 18 cases the procedure was also stopped, because in the meantime, the applicant received the requested information from the information holder, after intervention of the Commission and
• For 21 complaint the procedure is still underway
The withdrawal of the complaints and the stopping of the procedure for 54 complaints (25% of all the received complaints), is a result of the increased efforts of the Commission and its Expert Staff, that have, in written or through oral contacts, provided the requested information or documents from the information holders.
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Macedonia received 25 lawsuits against the decisions of the Commission and 4 lawsuits for cases on which the Commission hasn’t brought the decision yet.
Two of these lawsuits were withdrawn by the plaintiff.
Until May 2007, when the Supreme Court lost its jurisdiction over cases of administrative procedure, the Court decided on three lawsuits against decisions of the Commission. The Court annulled one Decision brought by the Commission and returned the case for a repeated procedure. The other two cases were rejected as ungrounded and confirmed the Decisions of the Commission.
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The application of the Law on Free Access to Public Information in the Republic of Macedonia is on its very beginning. It had its own temptations and problems that varied from case to case. Yet, the Commission in cooperation with the information holders surpassed them in order to meet the needs of the citizens.
The basic efforts of the Commission, that held 47 sessions preceded by the same number of preparatory sessions in this period, were always directed towards the solutions embedded in the Law, in order to improve the transparency, efficiency and effectiveness in the work of the state administration, the judicial authority, the local self government, the legal and physical entities that perform public authorizations as well as the public services of the citizens.
In the process of decision making, the Commission paid special attention to the constitutionally guaranteed right to free access to public information, enjoyed equally by all citizens of the Republic of Macedonia. The realization of this right represents a control of how the organs and institutions are functioning. The function of this right is to protect the interests of the citizens and to enable them an easier and faster realization of the needed information or documents, in accordance to the provisions of the Law on Free Access to Public Information. The application of this Law enables the public to form an adequate stand and an analytical opinion on the conditions of the society and of those who run certain departments and encourages the public to get more interest in the things of public concern.
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By analyzing the numbers of the submitted complaints to the Commission during the first year of implementation of the Law on Free Access to Public Information, we get to the following indicators:
• 125 complaints were submitted against state institutions, as public information holders
• 17 complaints against the court authorities
• 24 complaints against municipalities
• 16 complaints against public enterprises and institutions
• 1 complaint against a health institution
• 3 complaints against legal and physical entities that perform public authorizations
• 3 complaints against educational institutions
• 9 complaints against political parties
The Commission is following the provisions of the Law, but also the opinions of the experts, according to which the free access to public information should be a leading principle in the communication between the public authorizations holders and the citizens that are applicants for public information. In order to achieve this provision of the Law, the Commission, during its first year of implementation of the Law, managed to prepare and to publish a list of 1392 information holders covering the territory of the Republic of Macedonia, most of which with full and complete data:
• 212 state institutions
• 91 judicial authorities
• 84 municipalities in the RM
• 94 health care institutions
• 112 against legal and physical entities that perform public authorizations
• 293 public enterprises and institutions
• 487 educational institutions
• 19 political parties
This wide range of information holders, determined by the legislative, surpasses even the Recommendation of the European Council 2002-2 for accessing official documents, creates a difficulty in the communication with the mentioned information holders.
From the experience of the Commission with the implementation of the procedure on complaints, we can decide that in most of the cases the requests relate to:
• budget and donations
• public procurements
• issuing of different licenses, esp. for construction
• personal and property rights
• social protection
• number of new employments
• protection of the environment
• decisions of the law enforcement and judicial organs, etc.
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Most of the complaints from the applicants were received directly to the Commission, and not through the information holders, as presented in the Law. The information holders did not answered the requests in the legally determined deadline (silence of the administration) and in the legally determined manner.
We should also stress that the information holders, instead of preparing a record after positively answered request, or decisions after a partly or fully denied request, they were usually replying with information or answer, which is not in accordance to the Law.
The information holders were denying access to requested information with an explanation that it is a matter of classified information, without detailing the legal grounds and the secondary legislation on which the that classification is filed.
Some information holders were completely denying the requests, although there were possibilities of partial disclosure of the document or the information.
There are also cases when the applicant request more than one information from one information holder in one request form, and there are cases when the applicant abuse the Law on Free Access to Public Information in order to obtain an information or a document that emerge from a special legal authorization and function of the information holder.
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In order to promote the Law on Free Access to Public Information but also to gain new experiences, the Commission was constantly active on several fields:
The Commission in cooperation with the Secretary General of the Government organized mini trainings for the secretaries of state and other government’s officials, as well as for the persons in the state institutions that are in charge of mediating public information.
In cooperation with the Foundation Open Society Institute–Macedonia and “Metamorphosis”, the Commission has actively and partly financially joined the celebration of the International Day of Free Access, September 28, under the slogan “I have the right to know!”, by publishing a leaflet in the daily newspaper “Dnevnik”. On the same occasion two guidebooks were promoted “Guidebook for officials” and “Guidebook for applicants”, prepared by the NGO Pro Media with the financial support of the OSCE Monitoring Mission in Skopje.
The Commission was also a co-organizer of the First Regional Meeting that took part in Skopje in the presence of representatives of eight states, financially supported by the OSCE Monitoring Mission in Skopje, under the title “Access to Information – Best Practices and Lessons Learned”. The Commission also took part at the Second International Conference “e-Society.mk”
The President of the Commission participated at the First International Conference “Local Media in Transition”, organized by the Communication Cathedra at the New York University in Skopje as well as on the international workshop organized by the PAI-Public Administrational International held in London.
The Commission, as one of its legal obligations, prepared the Annual Report for 2006 and within the legal deadline delivered it to the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia for a further procedure.
In order to inform the public on the rights determined in the Law on Free Access to Public Information, the Commission held several press conferences, the President and the Commission members participated in the TV show “Good Morning Macedonia” on the Macedonian Television. Simultaneously, the daily newspapers “Vreme”, “Dnevnik”, “Utrinski Vesnik”, “Vecer”, “Nova Makedonija”, as well as the weekly “Fokus” showed great interest for the new Law and the experiences from its application.
In organization of the Foundation Open Society Institute–Macedonia, three round tables took place, with participation of eminent experts, on the issue “Improvement of the implementation of the application of the Law on Free Access to Public Information, the Law on Security of Classified Information and the Law on Protection of Personal Data”. Members of the Commission for Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information, of the Direction for Security of Classified Information and of the Direction for Protection of Personal Data, as well as representatives of the foundation “Metamorphosis” took active part at the realization of the workshops.
The first meeting was organized by representatives of the information holders from the executive authorities and the target group of the experts presentations at the second round table were the chief editors of the Macedonian media. The instructions were aimed for representatives from the banks, insurance companies, mobile and landline networks operators, as well as internet and cable providers.
The Commission organized and maintained cooperation with the representatives of the Directions for Security of Classified Information and for Protection of Personal Data, as well as with the State Commission for Hindering Corruption, in order to exchange experiences and knowledge from the practical application of the laws and jurisdictions that come out of the laws that regulate these activities.
In order to make a better cooperation with the local self government, that is also considered an information holder, the Commission members realized working visits of several municipalities in the country: Veles, Lozovo, Caska, Stip, Sveti Nikole, Ohrid, Kicevo, Berovo and Pehcevo.
The web site of the Commission is daily updated with contents that are necessary for a more detailed implementation of the Law on Free Access to Public Information.
In order to improve the regional cooperation, the Deputy Minister for Culture from the Republic of Montenegro, in charge of media relations and free access to information visited the Commission on his initiative.
