GONG Protests the Decision of City Council of Zagreb to Close its Sessions to the Public

GONG protested the decision by the City Council of Zagreb to change the practice for media access to the sessions of the Council and City Assembly and demands from the Council to open its work to the public again. In accordance with the City Council Book of Procedures, the sessions of the Council are open to the public, and only in exceptional cases, when discussing issues that are marked “classified”, the sessions may be closed to the public. However, the recently introduced practice has it that the reporters will get the materials discussed in the sessions on the same day, and they can watch the proceedings from a separate media room, on television monitors. In reality, what they get is information on the conclusions adopted per individual items on the agenda and the actual votes. The journalists have no insight whatsoever in the actual debate and arguments. This is also in collusion with the Law on Freedom of Access to Information, which states that the public institutions are obligated to inform the public about the agenda of their sessions and meetings; the operations of the public bodies and institutions and possibilities for public overview of their work; as well as the number of persons that can simultaneously conduct the overview activities, taking into account the order of submission of applications. Also, GONG points out that the Constitution, in Article 38, guarantees the right to report and access information to the journalists.

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