Free Access to Information of Public Importance

The public, in accordance with the above mentioned Law, has a right to access information of public importance held by court, „…with the purpose of the fulfilment and protection of the public interest to know and attain a free democratic order and an open society“ (Article 1 of the Law).

The Law defines the information of public importance as „…information held by a public authority, created during work or related to the work of the public authority, contained in a document, and related to everything that the public has a justified interest to know“ (Article 2 of the Law).

Тhe court is obliged to make information of public importance accessible by enabling interested parties to have insight in a document containing information of public importance, the right to a copy of that document, and the right to receive a copy of the document upon request, by mail, fax, electronic mail, or in another way, if that types of request have been made.

The three court counselors are authorized to act upon requests for free access to information of public importance and that is one counselor from Civil, one from Criminal and one from Administrative Division.

The request of the applicant is submitted in written form. The applicant is not obliged to state the reasons for this request. The court is obliged to allow an applicant access to information when the request is lodged orally, for the record and such a request shall be specially recorded.

The court is obliged to decide upon request without delay and within 15 days at the latest from the receipt of the request. In the case that the court is unable to decide in the above mentioned time limit, another time limit may not exceed 40 days.

If the request does not contain legally prescribed data and applicant doesn’t rectify it within the deadline of 15 days, the court shall reach a decision to dismiss the request as deficient. An appeal is not allowed against this decision.

In the event a court refuses the request, it shall be obliged to issue a decision on its rejection and give a written explanation of such a decision. An appeal is not allowed against such decision. If the public authority grants the request it shall not issue a separate decision, but shall make an official note about it.

A court must not be restrictive in the application of the Free Access to Information of Public Importance Law, that is it has to respect the principle of equality according to which „rights deriving from this act belong to everyone under equal conditions regardless of the nationality, residence, temporary residence, that is the head quarters or personal capacities such as race, religion, ethnicity, sex or similar“ (Article 6).

A court is also obliged to ensure the access to information without any discrimination in relation to journalist or public media, that is it can put a journalist or a media in a better position in relation to other by enabling the exclusive or earlier access to information of public importance.

The Court shall not allow exercise of right to free access to information of public importance if it would thereby:

1. Expose to risk the life, health, safety or another vital interest of a person;
2. Imperil, obstruct or impede the prevention or detection of criminal offence, indictment for criminal offence, pre-trial proceedings, trial, execution of a sentence or enforcement of punishment, any other legal proceeding, or unbiased treatment and a fair trial;
3. Seriously imperil national defence, national and public safety, or international relations;
4. Substantially undermine the government’s ability to manage the national economic processes or significantly impede the fulfilment of justified economic interests;
5. Make available information or a document qualified by regulations or an official document based on the law, to be kept as a state, official, business or other secret, i.e. if such a document is accessible only to a specific group of persons and its disclosure could seriously legally or otherwise prejudice the interests that are protected by the law and outweigh the access to information interest.

A court is not obliged to allow the applicant to exercise the right to access information of public importance if the applicant is abusing the rights to access information of public importance, „especially if the request is irrational, frequent, when the same or already obtained information is being requested again, or when too much information is requested“.

(Article 13 of the Law)

According to the Court Rules of Procedure „…the president of the court and court staff are obliged to ensure necessary conditions for public work of the court and adequate access for media in terms of topical information and proceedings in court, protecting the interests of proceedings, privacy and security of parties in a proceeding“ (Article 53).

In this respect, the court, when needed, issues statements on its entire work or work of the president, or a certain Division or a body as well as in regard to topical issues. The publicity of work is also ensured by giving statements for media, press conferences and in other ways.