The Ministry of Defence put an identical text of amendments to the Law on Classified Information to a public debate as the one recently withdrawn by the Government from the parliamentary procedure after the criticism of the international community and 25 Montenegrin NGOs.
We remind the Ministry of Defence and the Government that the right to access information has been recognized as a fundamental human right, and we invite them to withdraw the proposed amendments to the Law which limit this right unfoundedly and unconstitutionally.
Such behaviour confirms that the Government is persistently implementing reforms backwards, and destroying laws on which it previously worked in cooperation with the international community.
The proposed amendments envisage the introduction of a new basis for declaring documents classified, i.e. that data can be hidden from the public due to “exercising of the function of an authority”.
Such restriction is not in accordance with neither the Constitution nor the international conventions, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 19, Paragraph 3), the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 10, Paragraph 2), and the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents (Article 3).
The Constitution of Montenegro guarantees to all citizens the right to access information held by state authorities and organizations exercising public authority (Article 51) and stipulates that this right may be restricted if this is in the interest of: the protection of life; public health; morality and privacy; conducting criminal proceedings; security and defence of Montenegro; foreign, monetary and economic policy.
International conventions prescribe that restrictions on access to information must be necessary in a democratic society and proportionate to the goal that is being protected, and provide a precise list of exceptions in which access to information may be prohibited.
Therefore, neither the Constitution nor the international standards provide for the information to be classified due to “exercising of the function of an authority”.
There is no doubt that the Government has proposed amendments to this law to hide corruption, as concrete court verdicts show that many information has so far been declared state secret unfoundedly.
After losing court cases, instead of publishing information, the Government proposes amendments to the law in order to enable the information of public importance to be sealed as state secret.
This behaviour of the Government is in direct contradiction with recommendations from the latest European Commission report criticizing the executive authority for hiding information, thus limiting the ability of the media and NGOs to control the work of the state bodies.
If there is a fundamental political willingness for implementation of reforms, the Government should include European experts in the process of drafting this law and organize an adequate public debate, rather than simulate a debate during the summer season, trying to deprive the citizens of the right to access information, guaranteed by the Constitution.
MANS
