Information is hidden - the Act on SPI is of no interest to either the Parliament or the Government

SOURCE: ANTENNA M - AUTHOR: M.J. GDNUS

Montenegro welcomes another International Day of Free Access to Information, ignoring citizens' right to information, without a valid law but also respecting international standards, announced Milena Gvozdenović, Deputy Executive Director of CDT.

"The Parliament and the Government of Montenegro still intend to hide information and do not want the state to get an adequate Law on Free Access to Information, which is confirmed by the fact that changes to this law have not been on the agenda for a long time, while we have been witnessing numerous omissions for almost more than a decade and inaction in this area.

And while the government and parliament persistently ignore this now growing problem, citizens, non-governmental organizations and the media remain in the dark, and whether the public will receive any important information from the government depends on the will of individuals. In the same way, institutions can still hide any information they want from the public eye without hindrance," says Gvozdenović.

In the previous four years, three governments have changed in Montenegro, he added, and each had a chance to correct the mistakes and inaction of their predecessors in this area, but each of them missed this chance.

"Each new Government declaratively advocated for the improvement of the right to free access to information, but in reality this improvement did not occur.

"Instead of improvement, the authorities continue to behave as if they are not responsible to anyone and arbitrarily publish even the information that the laws stipulate must be public," says Gvozdenović.

From all of the above, it is clear, he adds, that the situation in the field of free access to information in Montenegro is deteriorating because the stage of stagnation is long behind us.

"CDT calls on the Government and the Parliament to urgently initiate changes to the Law on Free Access to Information from the deadlock and stop the disastrous practice of hiding information from the public," concludes Gvozdenović.