We call on the Government of Montenegro to abolish the remaining illegitimate restrictions on the right to access information, and to adopt amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information, which it withdrew from the parliamentary procedure, as a matter of urgency.
This law is a key tool of the media, NGO sector and citizens in the fight against corruption, but also control of the government work. The draft submitted by the previous government contained very important improvements related to access to information on the assets and income of public officials, as well as other norms that would enable access to data on the basis of which irregularities can be detected.
However, the previous government only partially corrected the restriction on access to data from Article 1, which was adopted in 2017 at the proposal of MPs from DPS. Namely, with the intervention of the then National Security Agency and the Ministry of Defense, the possibility was retained for the information of public importance to be declared secret, without any judicial control.
These provisions are not in accordance with our Constitution, or with international conventions. Therefore, we expect the new government to return the decision from the previous version of the Law, before the restrictions imposed by MPs from DPS.
We remind you that the European Commission has repeatedly pointed out the importance of amending this law and abolishing illegitimate restrictions. However, we have been waiting for amendments to this law for five years, and in the meantime, three governments that promised transparent work have changed.
For years, NGOs, media associations and journalists have been pointing out the abuses of this law and hiding of data of great importance to the public, especially documents that can detect corruption.
Therefore, we expect the Government to adopt amendments to this Law in accordance with the Constitution and international standards as soon as possible, and to send them to the parliamentary procedure as a matter of urgency.
MANS
